when we lose child choice for our health
care needs it narrows the field of
possibility for treatment and care
options if we only have one hospital to
choose from we are at the mercy of that
hospital
we hope the treatments it provides are
the only ones we need but what if
they’re not studies have shown that
people who don’t have easy access to
needed care either substitute primary
care for specialists postpone care or
simply don’t go at all because of the
double burdens of cost and long travel
time associated with care that is far
away consider your nearest big-box store
that big-box I get an all-in-one stock
for food clothes and household goods
this is great because I can go to one
place for everything except the big box
near me who doesn’t carry the brand of
tomato sauce I like and their clothes
aren’t really my style and the last time
I looked for patio furniture they had
three kinds but not the one I want but
they have a low low price so I tried a
new brain of tomato sauce and skip the
clothes and patio furniture I still got
some of the things I wanted because I
was willing to choose from the only
options given to me but I didn’t really
get everything I wanted now I still have
the option to go get my patio furniture
and my new dress from another store but
what if I didn’t what if instead of
patio furniture
it was IV antibiotics or chemotherapy
and what if there was no low price to
make it worth my while this past April
NPR ran a series about unusual hospital
bills in the story a man had gotten to
CT scans one that cost $300 at an
Imaging Center and another that cost
$9,000 at an emergency room the city he
lived in had gone through a
consolidation of health care providers
they ended up with a big-box health
system the big box Health System owned
so much that people’s choices were
reduced to go into a big box health
center and paying the big box price or
traveling farther away where they could
access the less expensive CT scan now
not only did the patient in the story
and a pain
vastly different amounts of money for
the same service but the amount of money
the insurance company paid out was more
expensive for big box health as well no
one saved any money this is a great
example of how systems with consolidated
health are not providing savings or
other benefits to people who need the
care to stop this from happening we need
to support the smaller local systems so
they can continue to provide us with a
competitively priced care in a variety
of options in other words break your leg
local if we lack options and primary
care providers we’re at the whims of a
small group of providers not just for
our ability to save money but for our
treatment options what do you do and who
do you turn to if the only primary care
doctor in your region isn’t willing to
provide a new treatment or refuses to
provide a treatment that goes against
their beliefs even if it’s one you need
what if your doctor simply doesn’t
believe the symptoms you’re having
people with chronic pain syndrome and
fibromyalgia have a long history of
ignored and misdiagnosed conditions it
was only through access to multiple
providers but they could find people
willing to listen to them and treat
their medical concerns if there is a
lack of diversity in home care services
you are instead left with one large VNA
who may not be able to schedule you when
you need and who may only have a limited
number of staff who cover your area if
you have lousy insurance or a lack of
support at home they may simply refuse
to take you under care and you will have
no other option this holds true for
dying people who want Home Hospice as
well imagine even losing the right to
die how you want utilizing a local
health care system allows a more
individualized care path and helps
create a more robust system of care
which builds a safety net for yourself
and others in other words break your leg
local people should be wary of huge
health systems that dictate the type of
care they can and cannot receive big
health systems are telling us all the
time that bigger is better yet in study
after study they have failed to find
cost savings or improvement in health
outcomes by putting the other local
providers out of
a recent article on the balance
determined we had an annual healthcare
cost of ten thousand three hundred and
forty eight dollars in two thousand in
2016 compared to one hundred and forty
six dollars in nineteen sixty this
despite a steady decline in the number
of hospitals since nineteen seventy what
has been shown to make a difference is
when people move from hospital level of
care to skilled rehab or nursing
followed by a visiting nurse this avoids
longer hospital stays and has been shown
to reduce the number of people coming
back into the hospital within 30 days of
their discharge it gives patients a
supported return to their lives in fact
it was the subject of the September
October 2017 Remington report which
reviewed over 8,700 patient outcomes for
many other patients who aren’t as ill it
could simply be a visit to your primary
care office followed by a referral to a
visiting nurse agency this plan gives
you the care you need now and is
drastically less expensive than in
hospital care it’s this stepwise fashion
of care that seems to be producing the
best outcomes and it’s in large part due
to the strength of communication between
these different levels of care now not
only does this reduce rehospitalization
rate it results in higher patient
satisfaction we like this style of care
better and it’s better for us this very
reason is why the Center for Medicare
and Medicaid Services made it a
patient’s right to have a choice for who
they choose for providers whether that
be for specialty care primary care or
home care when patients are not given a
choice it is not only a travesty of
health care it is illegal your local
providers are a microcosm of your
community and they better understand how
to get you connected to the resources
that give you better health people want
truly personalized health care you want
to be able to call up your nurse and say
I need a visit today things just don’t
seem right
your nurse can come on over and assess
you in your own home based on that
assessment the nurse can provide direct
care send you to the emergency room or
call the local providers office and get
you fast access to a same-day
appointment all depending on what you
need the ability to do this is possible
through trust
built up not only between the nurse and
the patient but between the nurse and
the doctor’s office this strength of
communication can help get you the care
that you need faster and in many cases
without an expensive and long emergency
room visit that same local healthcare
system can connect you to the local
resource groups to help connect people
to resources like meals on wheels
electricity assistance or grief support
substance abuse or chronic disease
management support groups break your leg
local large health organizations are
telling us all the time that they want
to capture our care but really they want
to capture our business from primary
care specialists to hospitalizations to
home care and finally to hospice but
health care has a difficult time scaling
to size and when it does the cost
savings are realized only by the health
care system not by the consumer remember
the NPR story about the two CT scans
from earlier your ER visit doesn’t cost
you less the hospital just makes more
money and you still have large health
organizations driving out smaller ones
eliminating options in health care now
instead of any primary care doctor you
have fewer to choose from or you need to
travel farther to get to your
chemotherapy because your local provider
went out of business
it extends the time that you’re
traveling in an ambulance and emergency
until you reach a hospital and it leaves
you farther away from your family and
loved ones once you arrive these are the
people who helped you make treatment
decisions plan for when you’re back home
and take you to follow-up appointments
the same thing can happen with primary
care labor and delivery home care
hospice the large health care
organization can and does steer you to
its own provider network you were the
commodity in this system you lose the
ability to choose from a wide local pool
of providers and are instead funneled
into a narrow system where there are a
few choices for the type of care you
receive it also causes care to become
concentrated in metropolitan areas
leaving rural and even suburban areas
without adequate care options these same
areas also tend to struggle with
transportation creating an additional
barrier to follow-up care when
healthcare consolidates you by big box
or you don’t buy anything except with
big box stores we’re making a
choice to limit our options and tomato
sauce and t-shirts and patio furniture
because we get low prices and when
healthcare consolidates we get limited
options and none of the benefits this
creates a cycle of missed or delayed
care which leads to further emergency
room visits and hospitalizations it only
increases health care spending for
everyone for some specialists rare
cancers in frequently seen genetic
disorders or unusual diseases we don’t
want or need many local options there is
a place for the Mayo Clinic’s of the
world but if we are not active consumers
of health care if we don’t understand we
have the right to know what our options
are and to choose the one that fits our
needs the best
then those choices will disappear and we
will be left with no choice at all local
healthcare is a right but one we must
defend patients must be given the right
to choose if patients do not have a
preference the big-box healthcare system
is free to recommend its choice in
effect leading us all lemming-like
so the Health System big box Health has
chosen for us a care system not chosen
because of excellence or because it
gives back to its local community but
one who will generate the most profits
they are in effect lining their own
pockets when sick and dying people place
their trust in them how can we fight
this seek out your local healthcare seek
out the healthcare that fits your needs
the best foster your local health care
environment for the same reason that
people support the local for movement
and small businesses just as this
movement made us realize the importance
of knowing where our food comes from and
supporting our local farmers and food
producers I say there should be a local
healthcare movement know where your
health care comes from you deserve
easily accessible local health care in
rural communities with poor access to
health
it’s these organizations that provide
much or all of the free care and
community health education that can make
the difference in getting inexpensive
preventive care versus expensive
emergency only care that drains its
taxpayer-funded Health System you need
and deserve a choice and who provides
your health care a strong local health
care system keeps you healthy it keeps
your neighbor healthy which lowers
insurance premiums
at hospital costs it supports a healthy
workforce creates local jobs and acts as
a draw for people to move into the
community where you live just as buying
local will support your businesses for a
strong local economy a strong local
health care system will support the
health of your local businesses you have
the right to choose your providers and
if a hospital or other system tries to
deny you that choice or steer you to a
particular provider complain complain to
the Center for Medicare Medicaid system
complain to your local paper on Facebook
anywhere you feel you have a voice we
are not sheep we are not lemmings we are
not the commodity we are people sick
healing or dying and we all of us should
get the health care that we deserve in
closing I wish you health but if you break your leg break it local
care needs it narrows the field of
possibility for treatment and care
options if we only have one hospital to
choose from we are at the mercy of that
hospital
we hope the treatments it provides are
the only ones we need but what if
they’re not studies have shown that
people who don’t have easy access to
needed care either substitute primary
care for specialists postpone care or
simply don’t go at all because of the
double burdens of cost and long travel
time associated with care that is far
away consider your nearest big-box store
that big-box I get an all-in-one stock
for food clothes and household goods
this is great because I can go to one
place for everything except the big box
near me who doesn’t carry the brand of
tomato sauce I like and their clothes
aren’t really my style and the last time
I looked for patio furniture they had
three kinds but not the one I want but
they have a low low price so I tried a
new brain of tomato sauce and skip the
clothes and patio furniture I still got
some of the things I wanted because I
was willing to choose from the only
options given to me but I didn’t really
get everything I wanted now I still have
the option to go get my patio furniture
and my new dress from another store but
what if I didn’t what if instead of
patio furniture
it was IV antibiotics or chemotherapy
and what if there was no low price to
make it worth my while this past April
NPR ran a series about unusual hospital
bills in the story a man had gotten to
CT scans one that cost $300 at an
Imaging Center and another that cost
$9,000 at an emergency room the city he
lived in had gone through a
consolidation of health care providers
they ended up with a big-box health
system the big box Health System owned
so much that people’s choices were
reduced to go into a big box health
center and paying the big box price or
traveling farther away where they could
access the less expensive CT scan now
not only did the patient in the story
and a pain
vastly different amounts of money for
the same service but the amount of money
the insurance company paid out was more
expensive for big box health as well no
one saved any money this is a great
example of how systems with consolidated
health are not providing savings or
other benefits to people who need the
care to stop this from happening we need
to support the smaller local systems so
they can continue to provide us with a
competitively priced care in a variety
of options in other words break your leg
local if we lack options and primary
care providers we’re at the whims of a
small group of providers not just for
our ability to save money but for our
treatment options what do you do and who
do you turn to if the only primary care
doctor in your region isn’t willing to
provide a new treatment or refuses to
provide a treatment that goes against
their beliefs even if it’s one you need
what if your doctor simply doesn’t
believe the symptoms you’re having
people with chronic pain syndrome and
fibromyalgia have a long history of
ignored and misdiagnosed conditions it
was only through access to multiple
providers but they could find people
willing to listen to them and treat
their medical concerns if there is a
lack of diversity in home care services
you are instead left with one large VNA
who may not be able to schedule you when
you need and who may only have a limited
number of staff who cover your area if
you have lousy insurance or a lack of
support at home they may simply refuse
to take you under care and you will have
no other option this holds true for
dying people who want Home Hospice as
well imagine even losing the right to
die how you want utilizing a local
health care system allows a more
individualized care path and helps
create a more robust system of care
which builds a safety net for yourself
and others in other words break your leg
local people should be wary of huge
health systems that dictate the type of
care they can and cannot receive big
health systems are telling us all the
time that bigger is better yet in study
after study they have failed to find
cost savings or improvement in health
outcomes by putting the other local
providers out of
a recent article on the balance
determined we had an annual healthcare
cost of ten thousand three hundred and
forty eight dollars in two thousand in
2016 compared to one hundred and forty
six dollars in nineteen sixty this
despite a steady decline in the number
of hospitals since nineteen seventy what
has been shown to make a difference is
when people move from hospital level of
care to skilled rehab or nursing
followed by a visiting nurse this avoids
longer hospital stays and has been shown
to reduce the number of people coming
back into the hospital within 30 days of
their discharge it gives patients a
supported return to their lives in fact
it was the subject of the September
October 2017 Remington report which
reviewed over 8,700 patient outcomes for
many other patients who aren’t as ill it
could simply be a visit to your primary
care office followed by a referral to a
visiting nurse agency this plan gives
you the care you need now and is
drastically less expensive than in
hospital care it’s this stepwise fashion
of care that seems to be producing the
best outcomes and it’s in large part due
to the strength of communication between
these different levels of care now not
only does this reduce rehospitalization
rate it results in higher patient
satisfaction we like this style of care
better and it’s better for us this very
reason is why the Center for Medicare
and Medicaid Services made it a
patient’s right to have a choice for who
they choose for providers whether that
be for specialty care primary care or
home care when patients are not given a
choice it is not only a travesty of
health care it is illegal your local
providers are a microcosm of your
community and they better understand how
to get you connected to the resources
that give you better health people want
truly personalized health care you want
to be able to call up your nurse and say
I need a visit today things just don’t
seem right
your nurse can come on over and assess
you in your own home based on that
assessment the nurse can provide direct
care send you to the emergency room or
call the local providers office and get
you fast access to a same-day
appointment all depending on what you
need the ability to do this is possible
through trust
built up not only between the nurse and
the patient but between the nurse and
the doctor’s office this strength of
communication can help get you the care
that you need faster and in many cases
without an expensive and long emergency
room visit that same local healthcare
system can connect you to the local
resource groups to help connect people
to resources like meals on wheels
electricity assistance or grief support
substance abuse or chronic disease
management support groups break your leg
local large health organizations are
telling us all the time that they want
to capture our care but really they want
to capture our business from primary
care specialists to hospitalizations to
home care and finally to hospice but
health care has a difficult time scaling
to size and when it does the cost
savings are realized only by the health
care system not by the consumer remember
the NPR story about the two CT scans
from earlier your ER visit doesn’t cost
you less the hospital just makes more
money and you still have large health
organizations driving out smaller ones
eliminating options in health care now
instead of any primary care doctor you
have fewer to choose from or you need to
travel farther to get to your
chemotherapy because your local provider
went out of business
it extends the time that you’re
traveling in an ambulance and emergency
until you reach a hospital and it leaves
you farther away from your family and
loved ones once you arrive these are the
people who helped you make treatment
decisions plan for when you’re back home
and take you to follow-up appointments
the same thing can happen with primary
care labor and delivery home care
hospice the large health care
organization can and does steer you to
its own provider network you were the
commodity in this system you lose the
ability to choose from a wide local pool
of providers and are instead funneled
into a narrow system where there are a
few choices for the type of care you
receive it also causes care to become
concentrated in metropolitan areas
leaving rural and even suburban areas
without adequate care options these same
areas also tend to struggle with
transportation creating an additional
barrier to follow-up care when
healthcare consolidates you by big box
or you don’t buy anything except with
big box stores we’re making a
choice to limit our options and tomato
sauce and t-shirts and patio furniture
because we get low prices and when
healthcare consolidates we get limited
options and none of the benefits this
creates a cycle of missed or delayed
care which leads to further emergency
room visits and hospitalizations it only
increases health care spending for
everyone for some specialists rare
cancers in frequently seen genetic
disorders or unusual diseases we don’t
want or need many local options there is
a place for the Mayo Clinic’s of the
world but if we are not active consumers
of health care if we don’t understand we
have the right to know what our options
are and to choose the one that fits our
needs the best
then those choices will disappear and we
will be left with no choice at all local
healthcare is a right but one we must
defend patients must be given the right
to choose if patients do not have a
preference the big-box healthcare system
is free to recommend its choice in
effect leading us all lemming-like
so the Health System big box Health has
chosen for us a care system not chosen
because of excellence or because it
gives back to its local community but
one who will generate the most profits
they are in effect lining their own
pockets when sick and dying people place
their trust in them how can we fight
this seek out your local healthcare seek
out the healthcare that fits your needs
the best foster your local health care
environment for the same reason that
people support the local for movement
and small businesses just as this
movement made us realize the importance
of knowing where our food comes from and
supporting our local farmers and food
producers I say there should be a local
healthcare movement know where your
health care comes from you deserve
easily accessible local health care in
rural communities with poor access to
health
it’s these organizations that provide
much or all of the free care and
community health education that can make
the difference in getting inexpensive
preventive care versus expensive
emergency only care that drains its
taxpayer-funded Health System you need
and deserve a choice and who provides
your health care a strong local health
care system keeps you healthy it keeps
your neighbor healthy which lowers
insurance premiums
at hospital costs it supports a healthy
workforce creates local jobs and acts as
a draw for people to move into the
community where you live just as buying
local will support your businesses for a
strong local economy a strong local
health care system will support the
health of your local businesses you have
the right to choose your providers and
if a hospital or other system tries to
deny you that choice or steer you to a
particular provider complain complain to
the Center for Medicare Medicaid system
complain to your local paper on Facebook
anywhere you feel you have a voice we
are not sheep we are not lemmings we are
not the commodity we are people sick
healing or dying and we all of us should
get the health care that we deserve in
closing I wish you health but if you break your leg break it local
Please follow and like us: