Who is most efficient in health care? Study finds, surprisingly, it's the VA

[DBoon]

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-01-efficient-health-va.html

Private-sector hospitals, clinics, and insurers are bloated, bureaucratic nightmares compared to efficiently run Veterans Health Administration facilities that put care over profits, a new study reveals.

The study, by researchers at Hunter College of the City University of New York, Harvard Medical School, the Veterans Health Administration, and the University of Washington, points fingers at profit-driven private facilities and insurers, where a whopping 30% of staff are stuck in the tangled web of paperwork, while the VHA shines with a lean 22.5% administrative staff. That means nearly 900,000 fewer paper pushers would be needed if private hospitals, clinics, and insurers took a page from the VHA's playbook.

The research is published in the journal JAMA Network Open.

Most of the bloat comes because profit-seeking insurers try to avoid paying for care by imposing complex rules and documentation requirements.

The final quoted sentence hits it on the bell. This is why we need single payer.

[MadLinguist]

1. not at all surprsing

The VA model is vastly different -- it scales, it's driven not by profit motive but by outcomes, it trains the providers (of all types, MDs, nurses, social workers, spiritual advisors, etc) as well as providers across other institutions. Additionally it is engaged in services like providing housing, burial arrangements, payment for family members providing healthcare. It ain't perfect as a healthcare system, but it is comprehensive patient support, which contrasts to everything else out there in the healthcare landscape

[Kid Berwyn]

2. Remember this next time a friend goes bankrupt due to medical bills.

Thank you, DBoon!

[MarineCombatEngineer]

3. I have always admired the VA, every time I've had to visit a VA clinic or hospital,

the staff have been very professional and helpful, in my years since my retirement, I've never had a bad visit to the VA.
Semper Fi.

[Tribetime]

4. Well my brother who was in the army hates their service

He says it's almost impossible for them to approve any work to be done

[marble falls]

8. Where's he live? Is he a Viet Vet? My experiance is exactly the opposite. They've spent over a million on me.

[usonian]

5. The V.A. has been working very hard to improve service

whereas private medical care has been working very hard to cut costs, raise prices and let robots decide who gets insured benefits and who doesn't.

Capitalism, comrade.

[Wounded Bear]

6. The VA has treated me as well as any private care system I've used along the way...

Better, in a lot of ways.

[marble falls]

7. The VA is exactly what a single payer should be, I'm sold. I love my VA health care.

[MiHale]

9. Best health care I've ever had.

[tom_kelly]

10. The VA is one of the best things I have going in my life n/t