Health News and Scoops

Olympus Managed Health Care, Inc. (OMHC), a leader in international strategic claims management, including cost containment, announces new services focused on the domestic health care payer. Olympus is extending its expertise perfected over 15 years in the international claims management business to the U.S. healthcare marketplace, providing proprietary claims management tools and data to manage claims and contain costs for fully insured, self-funded, HMO and worksite clients such as Mini-Med’s, HSA’s or other limited benefits plans.

Olympus also provides unique solutions under its Patient Care Advocacy Program that is designed to assist the client with facilitating access to health care and s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g their limited health care dollar; a great match for enhancing worksite product offerings. The Olympus proprietary international network provides “medical tourism” packages resulting in access to high quality health care at dramatically reduced costs.

Olympus combines cutting edge technology, a team of highly trained claims analysts along with a medical staff that specialize in managing medical care and detecting overcharges, erroneous or fraudulent claims, and cases that are most susceptible to over-billing.

A study released today in the public health journal Health Affairs detailed the financial impact of obesity on the United States health care system from 1998 to 2006.  The buzz of health care reform has led many to try and figure out where the money could come from.  Taxing? Hopefully not. Getting rid of insurance fraud and abuse? Potentially, but that would only be about a 3% savings.  Decreasing physician salaries and hospital budgets? Counterproductive.  Ah ha!  Reseachers discovered that obesity since 1998 has led to nearly $40 billion dollars in health care spending.  This includes perscription drug costs, which topped out at $7 billion.  The group estimates that with the incidence of obesity rising, costs will most likely have reached $147 billion dollars by 2008 (these studies have to be done in retrospect, as the data analysis is not possible until the year is over, and trends are typically seen over more than one year).
The most disconcerting part of their paper is when they show that in 1998, half of the $78.5 billion of medical spending due to obesity was paid for by Medicaid and Medicare.  If that is the case, then the researchers are correct in pointing out that a key to health care reform is going to have to focus on obesity.  It is calculated in this study that in the years between 1998 and 2006, the rate of obesity in the United States increased by 37%.  That’s 25.1% of our population.
The analysis found in this paper is not an attempt to attack obese people, but to illuminate how the medical problems caused by obesity are draining our health care system of its money.  Obesity is associated with some of the most expensive medical conditions possible: type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, and cancer.  Obesity is not just a problem of weight gain; it is a problem of causing the body to divert to its worst state of being, often leading to more than one if not all of those conditions mentioned.  We must avoid playing the blame game, and treat this issue as one of general concern both for the health care of our population, and the economic welfare of our population.  This study tells me that obesity has to be a center of change in our country.  Employers should provide incentives for losing weight and staying healthy, and obesity must be treated early in childhood.  I don’t know about you, but next time you think that obesity is a topic that can’t be addressed because of stigma, remember this: $147 billion dollars in 2008.