Why Have Health Care Costs Increased? Home Care Path

Cuts to federal and state health programs can be attributed to the rising cost of health care. Many forces can be identified as lead indicators contributing directly to the increase in health care cost. Below are identified causes to increasing health care costs. 1. Increased pharmacy expenses. Collected money is being used for research and development of new drugs. The per dose cost of drugs increases. 2. Expensive new technologies. Local health providers have purchased the newest technological advances for diagnostic testing. The transformation to computerized information has cost money. 3. Aging of the population. Collected census data indicates an increased number of seniors with insurance that assures access to health care services. 4. Increased consumer demand. The United States as a whole has recognized the value to early detection and preventive measures . U.S. citizens want regular visits with medical providers. 5. Broader managed care networks. Managed care networks depend on having large numbers of individual users as members. Managed care survives by getting the user population the health care benefits they need. Managed care simply means increased utilization by the population. 6. Provider consolidation. Consolidation is large health care organizations using the market to compete for patients with a valid pay source. Not all mergers result in improved services for the beneficiaries. Cost can be contained at the expense of quality, if an appropriate network of providers is not available. Large health organizations receive public dollars to care for a defined population. 7. Health care labor pressures. Having only the critically ill in hospitals requires adequate staffing levels with well trained employees. Hospitals, Nursing homes, Clinics, and Home Care Agencies are challenged with being able to employ an adequate amount of workers to safely serve a growing population of health care system users. Most U.S. citizens have come to realize health care is more of a need than a want. Providers of health care are not challenged to construct economic value, citizens find this inherent in the product. The challenge is to contain cost while maintaining quality and assuring inclusion. Home Care Path http://www.homecarepath.com/ coordinates elder home care assistants to help seniors remain in their homes.