GREENVILLE, N.C. — Health care and other care sectors are going through a boom and bust cycle.
And the cycle is continuing, as companies, regulators and consumers scramble to keep prices high enough to keep patients coming and going.
But as the health care sector grows more complex, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for people to predict which companies will keep prices low.
The problem is that the health insurance industry is now part of the broader healthcare industry, a sector that can have a tremendous impact on the quality of care.
This year, for example, a large swath of the health services industry — hospitals, doctors’ offices, outpatient clinics, emergency departments, primary care, nursing homes and more — is facing a crisis.
For the second year in a row, the industry is seeing a record-breaking number of cancellations, and the industry’s share of overall hospital admissions has dropped below 30% of total admissions for the first time in more than a decade.
In the coming months, we’re going to be able to get a clearer picture of how much impact health care industry disruption and disruption to its services is having on people’s health care costs, says Peter Stinson, an assistant professor at Duke University and one of the authors of a new study on health care disruption.
That will allow us to better understand what the impacts will be in the years ahead, he says.
“We need to understand the impact on people,” he says, “so that we can plan for it.”
A new wave of disruptions has begun at hospitals and nursing homes, says Mark Hetrick, senior vice president for research at the Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice at Northwestern University.
And the number is increasing every day. “
I’m seeing it in the emergency room as well, where there’s a surge in the number of people who are leaving the hospital because they can’t find their own place.
And the number is increasing every day.
We have a crisis of choice for people, he adds.
People are finding they can no longer stay in their homes because of the costs of the surge in homecare services.
And we’re seeing a resurgence in the practice of “hospice” or a medical aide that can help people with conditions such as diabetes or heart conditions.
These are all things that people would be hard-pressed to imagine going away, Stinson says.
We’re seeing these things because we’ve seen them in the private sector, too, he said.
Hetrick says the health system is in a constant state of flux.
Some companies are getting into the business of providing health care services, and others are simply responding to the needs of their customers.
But there’s no doubt that the medical care sector is in for a huge disruption in the coming years, he added.
At this point, Hetricks analysis of health care disruptions found that the disruption is spreading through health care businesses.
Health and human services are going to become more of a commodity than a resource, he explained.
As consumers seek better care, they are likely to find it elsewhere.
Hospitals and nursing home owners are going in search of the most efficient health care facilities, but the price is going to keep rising.
In the meantime, the private health care system is going through what Stinson called a “slow-motion recession.”
