Geisinger Health System points the way forward

Geisinger Health System practices many of the cost-saving principles touted by the Obama administration and is making people healthier in the process.

Geisinger, which is based in Danville but serves patients from East Stroudsburg to State College, has a unique model for delivering care.  According to an August 2nd article in the Scranton Times-Tribune, "It has a unique model for deliering care:  many of its nearly 800 doctors, whether hospital specialists or primary physicians, are salaried staff members, which removes some of the profit incentive of paying physicans piecemeal.

"It also has its own insurance company - Geisinger Health Plan - that covers about 230,000 state residents and use its copious data to help doctors coordinate patients' care. 

"And it has a sophisticated and well-established electronic health records system that is fully implemented in its three hospitals and spread throughout its 43-county network of primary care clinics.

"Its success has a lot to do with the integration of this sytem, which encourages doctors to work together and allows the company to allocate financial resources where they are needed."

One of its achievements is to confront health care's "dirty little secret" that "hospitals make more money if patients have more complications, not fewer." 

For example, it give heart patients a 90 day guarantee that the flat fee charged at the beginning of treatment will be the only bill they receive for medical problems treated during that period of time.  If complications develop, the cost is not passed along to the patient.

The Wilkes-Barre Times Leader reports in its August 3 edition that Geisinger supports national health reform.

"If nothing gets passed, the problems will worsen," said Frank Trembulak, vice president and chief operating officer for Geisinger.  "The cost of care will continue to rise."

"We've been promoting a bundled approach to payment, Trembulak said,  "Payers are paying for an outcome, not units of work."  He said changing the payment mechanism from piecework to outcome is something to be considered nationally.