The biggest challenges American health systems face are largely out of their control, according to Eugene Woods, CEO of Charlotte, N.C.-based Advocate Health.
In a live interview with Harvard Business Review April 9, Mr. Woods discussed a "mind-numbing burden" of regulatory and administrative practices that get in the way of efficient, quality healthcare.
When a patient is admitted to the hospital, a caregiver must log the right ICD9/ICD10 codes out of approximately 69,000, according to Mr. Woods. Much of this burden falls on the physician — and although Advocate Health takes care of the patient, reimbursements are often delayed or denied.
"I have thousands of people right now devoted to how to work through the administrative hurdles just to take care of our patients," Mr. Woods said.
Mr. Woods is currently working with the American Hospital Association in an attempt to simplify the nation's healthcare system. Raised in Spain, he believes the U.S. could learn from other countries' public health infrastructures.
"If you look at Spain for example…there's a really expanded access to primary care," Mr. Woods said. "I recall as a kid going to a pharmacist, and the pharmacist acts like a primary care physician. And 80% of the care that's provided is primary care related."
But in countries with universal access and a focus on preventative care, there are trade offs — taxes tend to be higher, and specialty care can be harder to come by. This access issue could be particularly problematic in the U.S., Mr. Woods said: "Americans like to get things quickly so the question is, how do we address this as a nation?"
Mr. Woods believes the U.S. needs to double its public health investment from $100 billion to $200 billion, citing that for every dollar invested in public health, there is an $88 return in societal benefit.
"The challenge we have in this country is we haven't really decided what our healthcare policy should be. We've got the Affordable Care Act on one end, but it's not completely implemented," Mr. Woods said. "I don't think we have the political will right now to really decide how we want to orient ourselves from a policy perspective towards care of our citizens."