Researchers generally agree that medical technology has contributed to rising health care costs (1-. Health insurance eliminates financial barriers for consumers,. 21st century medicine is increasingly dependent on technology. Unlike many other areas, the cost of medical technology is not decreasing, and its increasing use contributes to skyrocketing health care costs.
Many medical professionals equate the progress of medicine with the increase in the use of sophisticated technology, which is often expensive and out of reach of the average citizen. Pediatric heart care requires a lot of technology and is therefore very expensive and out of reach for the vast majority of children in the developing world. There is an urgent need to address this situation by developing and using appropriate technology in accordance with the needs and priorities of society. Before adopting high-end technology, a series of simple and affordable quality measures must be instituted that have the potential to substantially improve results without the need for expensive equipment.
Cost-reducing innovations that are commonly used in resource-limited environments should be systematically tested. Health policy makers have focused on cost containment over the past few decades as a means of coping with the rapidly rising costs of health care in the Western world. All kinds of measures have been introduced in all types of health systems. Practically all of them have one thing in common: they failed to contain costs.
In trying to explain the failure, health policy experts point to the spread of medical technology. The same innovations that save so many lives seem to be responsible for our health systems weakening financially. The exact impact of new medical technology on long-term spending growth remains the subject of some controversy. Most experts believe that advances in medical technology account for half to two-thirds of annual spending increases.
Clearly, new medical technology is the main driver of rising health care costs and, therefore, insurance premiums. A competitive healthcare market has created a true technological arms race of almost 20 billion dollars. Technological solutions that are rapidly emerging and designed to improve the operational efficiency of hospitals are already having a positive effect on hospital outcomes. Physicians spend less than a third (27%) of their time treating patients; most of their time is spent on various administrative tasks.
In fact, some doctors spend up to a third of their time entering patient notes into electronic medical records (EHRs). Companies that adopt automated insurance claim processing and dispute management will soon gain key advantages, such as reducing labor costs, improving payment efficiency and increasing customer satisfaction in a highly competitive field. According to a Gartner study, leading insurers in digitalization will outperform finance by 100% those that adopt the slowest digital technology. The analogue of the spread of medical technology is that a technology will expand its use until it reaches medical applications that are not cost-effective.
The presence of health insurance provides some assurance to researchers and medical providers that patients will have the resources to pay for new medical products, encouraging research and development. Commercial interests, such as those inherent to pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers, represent the dominant force that drives medical innovation. .
