- The federal government is by far the largest health insurer - through Medicare and Medicaid it pays for 38% of healthcare in the US [1]. - The federal government directly subsidizes private health insurance through ACA [2]. - The federal tax exemption for employer-paid health insurance is by far the largest by dollars exempted [3].
All these government interventions increase reliance on health insurance, which increases the complexity of billing, which grows the medical billing industry.
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/237043/us-health-care-sp... [2] https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/subsidized-coverage/ [3] https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2012/12/04/1664342...
value based care is another iteration of "pray for alternative" to non FFS model, aka the APM.
This is the road of the HMO, the RVU, the QCCS...and i could go on and on. Its the road that we have traveled on since the late 80s. Its the road of the wanderer in the desert.
It doesn't lead anywhere but more profits for the road-builders.
40 years of history with 0 decreases in healthcare costs is all the evidence you need to put this one to bed.
The question might be: can we create an Uber-like business that has gives doctors the tech infrastructure to consult with patients without it feeling like a mom and pop shop?
Not in the strict uber model. Mind you. Providers will need to keep more of a share for it to work.
Make those programs go away, and CPT codes would eventually die.
It is not going to go away so unfortunately we need to learn to live life with it, and instead make it irrelevant, or niche, just like a ferrari is niche.
The best way to cope is to have an alternative to CPT coding, which means, alternative to insurance-based healthcare, which means, medicine between patients and doctors.
The only way to do that is that insurance and CPTs get so expensive that an alternative system is demanded by the market.. and people opt in (and regs allow for it). In effect, ferraris vs corolla. Corollas don't care about CPTs, Medical Billing, Eligibility, Copays, Coinsurance, or Authorizations.
The only way we can get more honda's is by having more independent doctors and less hospitals.
Hospitals create monopolies, independent doctors break monopolies with competition.