As the Healthcare debate rages on in Washington DC and across the country, I think Americans need to know the strain this is already putting on the industry and the potential problems it could lead to for patients. I have worked as a nuclear medicine technologist for 27 years and have been a regional director at hospitals and out patient imaging centers in central Texas and the Metroplex for the past 7 years. I have never seen this entire industry in such a state of turmoil and uncertainty as it is right now.
As healthcare providers, we are expected to do diagnostic testing with the newest, state of the art technology, in the quickest manner possible, with highly qualified and trained personnel, all for increasingly lower reimbursements from Medicare and private insurance companies. The costs of operating these businesses continue to soar (ie: rent, taxes, utilities, supplies, equipment, liability insurance, etc) but the dollars we are paid for doing procedures continues to decrease. Many independent, free-standing outpatient facilities are going out of business and others are hanging on by a thread. With the uncertain state of what the future holds for the entire industry, almost all personnel hiring, ordering of new equipment, and expansion of existing practices has come to a screeching halt.
This has started a domino effect that is reaching into other support industries. For instance, equipment salesmen are being laid off because no one is buying new equipment. Technologists positions are being cut or openings left unfilled because no one knows what the future holds. The insurance industry operates on a 3-4% profit margin and the changes that Congress is proposing to force on them will put many of them out of business as well, leading to unemployment for their employees too.
President Obama and the leaders of Congress can argue all they want that their plans won’t lead to rationing of care but common sense should tell anyone that if current providers of healthcare go out of business or if they have to curtail their services then it will lead to delays in patients getting services. This is all coming about at the time the baby boomers are reaching an age of needing more healthcare services and the number of young people becoming doctors is decreasing. The American healthcare system is the most innovative, life saving, and life changing of in the entire world. Unfortunately we have all the ingredients in place for a “perfect storm” to descend upon our healthcare industry and wreak havoc upon what has been the envy of the world. Government takeover or increased involvement in our healthcare system is not the solution and will most likely make a bad situation irreversibly worst.
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