Interesting Perspective from Dr. Schneider, Cardiologist

Rx for the US Healthcare Crisis? Reward Outcomes and Put the Whole Country on Medicare

Top Cardiologist Dr. Richard Schneider says our healthcare system rewards physicians for the number of procedures they do rather than the outcomes they achieve. Too many physicians follow the money and perform unnecessary tests. There is no incentive to reward physicians who get better outcomes and there is no incentive for physicians to use less expensive medications or procedures when they are equally as effective as expensive ones.

Ageless Lifestyles Radio host, Dr. Michael Brickey interviewed Dr. Schneider on how to fix the system. Dr. Schneider says that Medicare is an extremely efficient insurance program and “We need to put the entire country on Medicare, from conception to death.” He explains that HMOs have been rewarded for cutting costs—often at the patient’s expense, and traditional insurance companies spend a huge amount of premiums on administration, advertising, and stockholder benefits. The solution is to have Medicare adopt a fee structure based on patient outcomes. “We have the systems to measure this. We need to compare the costs of traditional insurance, HMOs and Medicare with incentives. We’ll see that the private plans just are not economically efficient, and they will lose out, good-bye.”

Dr. Schneider’s book, The Cost of Courage, describes how he successfully practiced compassionate, ethical medicine and was often punished for doing it and the solution to our healthcare crisis. He is scheduled to testify at whistleblower conferences and Congress.

Dr. Schneider’s website, www.RichardRSchneiderMD.com