Health Care Costs

There's a good chance during open enrollment this fall that you will be offered a high-deductible insurance plan with a savings account - if you haven't already been nudged into one. Increasingly, employers are offering this as a way to rein in their health insurance costs. The high deductible means lower premiums, benefits experts say. And employees - confronted with the prospect of potentially paying thousands of dollars before insurance kicks in - are less likely to run to the emergency room for minor problems, which also keeps costs down.

MedStar Health , among the largest health systems in the state, is entering the increasingly crowded urgent care market with its first facility on York Road. A ribbon cutting is planned for May 30. The MedStar system currently operates nine hospitals, including Union Memorial Hospital, Franklin Square Medical Center, Harbor Hospital and Good Samaritan Hospital in the Baltimore area. It also operate nursing homes and doctors' offices in the Maryland and Washington region. The new facility at 6317 York Road is called PromptCare, and aims to treat non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries such as minor burns, back strains, ear and eye infections, flu symptoms and allergic reactions.

A petition signed by hundreds of state workers complaining about proposed increases to their health insurance costs was delivered to state budget officials yesterday as a small group of employees huddled in the rain to protest the planned charges. "They want to balance the budget on our shoulders," said David Harding, a computer operator in the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and a leader of a union that represents some of the state's nearly 100,000 employees and retirees. "It's gone too far."

To help guarantee health care reform that reduces costs and builds "health care teams that work" (to use President Barack Obama's words), pharmacists must play a key role in the planning process being undertaken by the federal government. The health care reform principles being considered are well grounded in developing strategies to promote the prevention and management of chronic diseases. Essential to the success of those strategies is the fully integrated role of pharmacists, the country's most accessible health care professionals.

Maryland corporations could save themselves millions of dollars in health-care costs by getting involved in the fight against infant mortality, business leaders were told yesterday at the state's first conference on the issue.About 11 of every 1,000 babies born in Maryland die before their first birthday -- a rate slightly higher than the national average. Countless others born with health problems may survive only because of extraordinary medical attention. The cost, business leaders were told, is staggering:* In 1991, Maryland employers spent almost $30 million to cover uncompensated health-care costs for mothers and their babies.

WASHINGTON -- Underscoring the urgency of the current push in Washington to rein in skyrocketing health care costs, Medicare's trustees warned Tuesday that the program's biggest fund would run out of money in just eight years. The prediction - issued in an annual report on Medicare and Social Security finances - offered the bleakest assessment of Medicare's future in years and reflects growing concern among policy experts that the nation's health care spending is unsustainable. "The Medicare trustees' report makes clear that today there is no more important long-term fiscal policy measure than gaining control of the growth of Medicare costs by delivering health care services more efficiently," Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said.

President Bush's proclamation that the East Baltimore Medical Center is a model for the country in containing health care costs is clear evidence the administration wants to tap into the prestige of the Johns Hopkins Hospital in dealing with this high-cost issue. Its formula calls for Medicaid patients to be enrolled in health maintenance organizations (HMOs) where, as at EBMC, they receive the same care as privately financed patients.The East Baltimore facility is one of 18 now operated by the Prudential Health Care Plan in cooperation with the Johns Hopkins Medical Services Corp.

Health care reform is a divisive issue in Washington, but there is wide agreement on one solution to lower costs and improve care: health information technology, or health IT. Health IT replaces paper medical records with electronic records. This is how I run my Baltimore-based wire basket and hook company; shouldn't my doctor do the same? The power of information technology is familiar to anyone who pays bills online, buys on Amazon or downloads music on an iPod. My company and other manufacturers use IT systems to track products from assembly line to store shelf, speed delivery to customers, conduct online sales and more.

You might not have received your open enrollment package yet, but you probably know what to expect: Higher premiums. More out-of-pocket costs. Enticements to participate in wellness programs. This may be the last predictable open-enrollment season. Next fall, open enrollment will incorporate the changes from the Affordable Care Act, which takes full effect in 2014. "We will see a lot of change for 2014," said Melissa Jimeno, a principal in the Baltimore office of benefits consultant Mercer.

Congratulations to Doug Mainwaring for having saved $100,000 in health care costs by opting to "self insure" and for being in a position to spend that amount in the future ( "Health reform unfair to self-insured businessman," Jan. 18). I am sure that will be a great comfort to the millions of working stiffs in this country who earn half that much or less each year. More to the point, Mr. Mainwaring's argument suffers from the classic economic fallacy, "past performance predicts future performance.