System Efficiency

Restructuring the foundations of healthcare and insurance.

Tax information can be used a means to streamline enrollment in public and private health insurance programs. By Robert Nelb, Yale University

Set a maximum rate of charge for each healthcare procedure so that self-payers are not charged exorbitant amounts compared to health insurers. This rate should be denoted as a multiple of Medicare Allowable Cost. By Kumar Senthil, Johns Hopkins University

Due to dire forecasts for the supply of registered nurses (RNs), nursing education programs currently enjoy the attention of policy makers and workforce planners. Providing additional resources to nursing education programs to increase output is necessary to address the looming nursing shortage. By Dan Belsky, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Creating a federal evidence-based set of health insurance benefit mandates can reduce unnecessary variation in state-level mandates and expand access to quality, affordable health care nationwide. By Jeet Guram, University of South Carolina

Congress should support an institution that comparatively evaluates medical treatments, revealing the practices and treatments that are both efficient and effective. By Jonathan Knoche, University of Wisconsin

It is estimated that in 2003, 31% of every dollar spent on health care in the US was consumed by administrative costs. Much of these costs could be eliminated by creating an electronic ID card which would include all patient information.

We must slow down! It is imperative that medical processes, particularly the dispensing of medications at the level of the pharmacy be streamlined to allow for more attention to preventing errors. Pharmacists should be able to spend more time counseling, and should have an incentive for doing so.

With technology at a point where I can enter in a street address in any city in the United States and find a satellite image of it, there needs to be a point where healthcare catches up to the by digitizing medical records.