CINCINNATI — Inflation is leaving its mark on every industry — including health care. The rising prices, coupled with demands of the pandemic to innovate the profession, led to a group of providers and businesses leaders teaming up to talk about the future of the industry when it comes to people's wallets.
Steve King, president of outsource sales and marketing company People At Your Service, hosted the first business of health care summit Friday.
“There is so much incredible work happening on the clinical side of health care with the pandemic happening, but the behind-the-scenes aspect is also really important,” King said.
The four-hour event let industry leaders from around the Tri-State to collaborate and listen to featured speakers and panels discussing the future of the health care system.
“It’s about driving efficiency,” said King. “The ability to get supported and served quickly, cost efficiently without having to take time off work.”
Also discussed was the pandemic’s push for the medical field to lean into technology.
“If you wanted to offer some sort of health services, you were going to do it via Telehealth or you weren’t going to do it at all,” said Rick Browne, chair for Xavier University's Department of Health Services Administration.
Browne said the big issue plaguing health care now is the rising costs and the complicated nature of the industry.
“One of every five dollars we spend is spent on health care, and if it's spent on health care, it's not spent on roads, it's not spent on education and it's not spent on other things we really need it spent on," Browne said.
Browne said he believes health care providers should be rewarded for positive outcomes instead of completing services.
“Patients, we want to be better. We don’t want to just have service. We want that service to do something and to make us better,” Browne said. “Health care providers want to make money and insurance companies want to pay out money, but not more than they need to.”
The group said they hope the summit, and similar ones in the future, continue to spark change.
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