By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    HIPPA compliance
    How Medical Office Staff Can Make Your Practice HIPAA Compliant
    October 29, 2021
    Everything you need to know about hyaluronic acid treatment
    Everything you need to know about hyaluronic acid treatment
    February 10, 2022
    Which Mushroom Capsules Are Good for Your Health?
    May 5, 2022
    Latest News
    Clean Your Mattress Properly to Avoid Common Health Issues
    March 29, 2023
    5 Benefits Of HIPAA-Compliant Answering Services
    March 28, 2023
    3 Ways To Deal With Health Issues In Cities With High Pollution
    March 22, 2023
    What Tools Should Your Caregiver Have?
    March 22, 2023
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    Health Care Inflation
    May 17, 2011
    Uninsured, and Lovin’ It
    June 10, 2011
    Health Care Reform in 2 Short Sentences
    July 21, 2011
    Latest News
    What Are Bioidentical Hormones Made With?
    March 23, 2023
    Cover Medical Costs of Child Dog Bites with Legal Specialists
    March 23, 2023
    3 Ways to Improve the U.S. Healthcare System By 2030
    March 14, 2023
    6 Steps To Ensure Speed And Efficiency Of Clinical Studies
    March 14, 2023
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Dr. Carson on Health Care
Share
Sign In
Notification Show More
Latest News
healthy travel tips when visiting Australia
7 Essential Tips to Stay Safe and Healthy Visiting Australia
News
health risks of dirty mattress
Clean Your Mattress Properly to Avoid Common Health Issues
Health
eligble for NDIS?
Are You Eligible For NDIS? How To Apply
News
upgrade to your nursing career
4 Pertinent Ways to Upgrade Your Nursing Career
Nursing
career in nursing
8 Keys to A Fulfilling & Successful Career in Nursing
Career
Aa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Aa
Search
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Business > Finance > Dr. Carson on Health Care
BusinessFinanceHealth ReformPolicy & Law

Dr. Carson on Health Care

JohnCGoodman
Last updated: 2013/04/02 at 7:29 AM
JohnCGoodman
Share
8 Min Read
drCarson
SHARE

Dr. Ben Carson made quite a splash at the National Prayer Breakfast the other day. Elsewhere I discuss the moral vision he provides in his book, America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great. But here I want to look at his recommendations for health reform.

Dr. Ben Carson made quite a splash at the National Prayer Breakfast the other day. Elsewhere I discuss the moral vision he provides in his book, America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great. But here I want to look at his recommendations for health reform.

Most people who saw the speech were thrilled (or appalled) that he called for universal Health Savings Accounts beginning at birth. This is a fascinating idea that would merit some deeper analysis. Unfortunately, he doesn’t mention it in his book, even though he devotes a chapter to health care.

Instead, his writing offers up some off-the-cuff emotional reactions to problems he has experienced. They are not well thought through and I expect he would write something very different if he had an opportunity to dig a little deeper. Let me start that rethinking here.

More Read

everest healthcare

The Everest Foundation’s Mission to Support Inclusive Healthcare

Colleges Prove the Huge Benefits of AI in Healthcare Education
Best Practices for Healthcare Call Centers Should Follow in 2023
How Hospitals and Other Healthcare Providers Can Boost Employee Morale
What are the Benefits of Hospitals and Clinics Using Expense Management Services?

drCarsonHe begins by writing about what drew him to medicine as a boy, and then to neurosurgery as a medical student. (If you aren’t familiar with Carson’s upbringing I urge you to buy the video version of his autobiography, Gifted Hands).

He then describes one of the problems of providing free health care — poor attitudes on the part of patients. He says their sense of entitlement turns them hostile, and even abusive, toward providers:

Contrary to popular belief, one of the reasons many physicians refuse to see indigent patients is not that they cannot pay, but because of the poor treatment they receive from such patients.

He goes on to complain about the complexity of dealing with many insurers:

Unfortunately, our healthcare insurance system has become so complex that virtually all medical offices and larger practices need billing specialists just to navigate its intricacies. All of this variation and complexity produces mountains of paperwork and requires armies of people to push it around.

He thinks this is all done to prevent fraud. But he says a better remedy would be to impose very stiff penalties on those few providers who engage in fraud, “such as loss of one’s medical license for life, no less than ten years in prison, and loss of all of one’s personal possessions.”

Yikes! The family members of such a doctor would not be very happy about this. But, more importantly, what is called “fraud” is often nothing more than a billing dispute. Indeed, just a few pages later, Dr. Carson relates the story of a physician friend who wanted to get into real estate development, so he sold his oral surgery practice to a colleague. Medicare decided the colleague was engaged in fraud, but he didn’t have many resources, so they went after Carson’s friend as well:

They meticulously examined fifteen years of his practice records for evidence of fraud and were only able to uncover two questionable bills, amounting to a total of $180…He was told that they would take him to trial as a co-defendant with the buyer of the practice and would convince jurors that he had knowledge or turned a “blind eye” to the other doctor’s activity. And that eventually he would end up in federal prison if he did not plead guilty to a federal offense in connection with the $180 discrepancy…He accepted their deal and was sentenced to a one-year house arrest and a $300,000 fine.

This is how Medicare often operates. It chooses not to do simple claims adjudication before paying bills, so every five years or so, it makes a big public relations splash of criminally prosecuting providers who never should have been paid in the first place.

Also, to reduce paperwork Carson would have all payers pay all providers the exact same rate, regardless of their skills or underlying expenses. And he would require all insurers to “become non-profit service organizations with standardized, regulated profit margins.”

He would also “remove from the insurance companies the responsibility for catastrophic healthcare coverage, making it a government responsibility.” He thinks this would make coverage more affordable, because “if we did not regulate utilities, few people would be able to afford their water or electricity.” He would confine insurers to “a 15 percent annual profit, 5 percent of which would go to the government’s national catastrophic healthcare fund.”

Readers of this blog know that I am no great fan of health insurance companies and would like to see their role in health care greatly reduced. They are far too intrusive into the patient/physician relationship and have indeed piled on vast amounts of administrative costs to the entire system.  The idea of universal HSAs Dr. Carson presented during his speech might help remedy all this but the ideas presented in the book are poorly informed:

  • Insurers don’t currently make anywhere near 15 percent profits, more like 4 percent.
  • Five percent of claims wouldn’t come anywhere close to funding catastrophic expenses.
  • Not-for-profit insurance companies are no more efficient, accountable or affordable than for-profit ones.
  • Utilities make a whole lot more money by selling services to the masses than they could by raising prices so that only a few could afford it.
  • The reason utilities are regulated is because they are state-sanctioned monopolies not subject to the discipline of competition.
  • Using criminal fraud to deter false claims is already being done in Medicare, with poor results.

After his prayer breakfast talk, some people thought Dr. Carson should run for president. That is a terrible idea. We don’t need more politicians, but we could use a great moral leader like Billy Graham or Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. Carson’s gifts would be wasted by descending into the weeds of public policy and practical politics.

TAGGED: Dr. Ben Carson

Sign Up For Daily Newsletter

Be keep up! Get the latest breaking news delivered straight to your inbox.
By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
JohnCGoodman April 2, 2013
Share this Article
Facebook Twitter Copy Link Print
Share
Previous Article Image Five Essential Moves to Transform Healthcare Marketing
Next Article Image Unlocking True Patient Understanding

Stay Connected

1.5k Followers Like
4.5k Followers Follow
2.8k Followers Pin
136k Subscribers Subscribe

Latest News

healthy travel tips when visiting Australia
7 Essential Tips to Stay Safe and Healthy Visiting Australia
News March 29, 2023
health risks of dirty mattress
Clean Your Mattress Properly to Avoid Common Health Issues
Health March 29, 2023
eligble for NDIS?
Are You Eligible For NDIS? How To Apply
News March 29, 2023
upgrade to your nursing career
4 Pertinent Ways to Upgrade Your Nursing Career
Nursing March 29, 2023

You Might also Like

Bioidentical Hormones
Medical Education

What Are Bioidentical Hormones Made With?

March 23, 2023
child dog bite lawyer
News

Cover Medical Costs of Child Dog Bites with Legal Specialists

March 23, 2023
US healthcare system
Global Healthcare

3 Ways to Improve the U.S. Healthcare System By 2030

March 14, 2023
Clinical Studies
Global Healthcare

6 Steps To Ensure Speed And Efficiency Of Clinical Studies

March 14, 2023
//

We influence million of users and is the most authentic source of information on healthcare business and technology news.

Quick Links

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Subscribe

Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!

Follow US

© 2008-2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.

Removed from reading list

Undo
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?