The US government insists that a combination of
initiatives, which include better IT, could
save cash-strapped hospital insurance trust fund
Medicare.
Medicare's board predicted that the fund will slip into the red
in 2019, seven years earlier than the group estimated a decade
ago.
The board's annual report cited a recent Medicare prescription
drug bill as the chief culprit in the deteriorating finances of the
39-year-old government programme, and it warned that the Medicare
payments would top US social security payments by 2024 as the baby
boom generation ages.
However, the US Department of Health and Human Services said
that some parts of the new drug benefit bill, such as e-prescribing
efforts and disease management programmes, will help hold costs
down.
"The reforms built into the new Medicare law often get
overshadowed by the new prescription drug benefits, but these
reforms provide more tools to use to improve the solvency of the
program," said HHS secretary Tommy Thompson.
The HHS added that IT efforts, such as the push for increased
use of drug barcoding systems, would help reduce errors and save
money by ensuring more appropriate care.
Experts cautioned, however, that IT could do little to stem the
wave of healthcare spending expected in the coming decades.
"I don't think that reducing inefficiencies alone will resolve
the financial problems that are going to be faced by Medicare as a
result of baby boomer retiring and more complex procedures coming
on the market," said Paul Heldman, an analyst at Schwab Washington
Research Group.
"I'm sure there will be benefits there, but I can't imagine it's
the kind of savings that will save the Medicare programme."
The report - a collection of assumptions about the growth of
healthcare expenditures and the rate at which new funds come into
the programme - mentioned nothing about possible cost savings from
informatics.
The phrase "information technology" never appears in the
221-page report, nor is there any reference to electronic medical
records or computerised drug or order entry systems.
Brian Reid writes for Health-IT World