News
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Grand Junction and several local doctors figure prominently in a new Rocky Mountain PBS documentary that will air nationally on network member stations 9 p.m. Feb. 16.
Former Washington Post correspondent and best-selling health care writer T.R. Reid has traveled around the world comparing health care systems.
In every other rich democracy, everybody is covered while spending half of what the United States spends on health care, Reid said during a panel discussion following a screening Wednesday in Grand Junction of the film “U.S. Health Care: The Good News.”
Reid also visited towns and cities across the U.S. to learn the reason for such huge variations among communities in health care spending. He learned Grand Junction ranks at the top for providing quality care while keeping costs low, thanks to a group of local doctors and community leaders who formed, nearly 40 years ago, a nonprofit insurance organization called Rocky Mountain Health Maintenance Organization, which later became Rocky Mountain Health Plans.
Grand Junction is one of three communities featured in “U.S. Health Care: The Good News.” The film was produced by Lisa Hartman of Photopia Productions in Denver, in cooperation with Rocky Mountain PBS.
The preview screening held at St. Mary's Hospital in the Saccomanno Room was attended by 300 people, an audience comprised primarily of St. Mary's physicians and board members, key staff members of Rocky Mountain Health Plans, and Rocky Mountain PBS donors and volunteers.
When asked why he chose to feature Grand Junction in the PBS documentary, Reid said, “I didn't. The Dartmouth Atlas chose Grand Junction.”
The Dartmouth Atlas Project, based in Hanover, N.H., at Dartmouth College, studies and publishes information regarding the disparity of how medical resources are distributed and used across the U.S.
“The guys at Dartmouth took on a project studying Medicare billing records (all public information except for patients' names),” Reid said. “They compared hundreds of millions of records and they found something amazing. There are huge variations in costs. There are no rules to say how much anybody should pay to fix a broken wrist.”
Even allowing for cost-of-living differences, prices should not vary by a factor of 300, Reid said.
For example, a particular treatment that might cost $1,000 in Grand Junction, might cost $3,000 in Miami — for the same treatment, and same result, Reid said. A lot of the health care cost disparity was found due to unnecessary medical procedures and higher doctor salaries elsewhere.
“In Grand Junction there's more of a collaboration between health care facilities and providers, than in most places,” said Dr. Michael Pramenko, one of the local physicians interviewed in the film.
The film also spotlights certified nurse-midwife Janet Grant who was instrumental along with obstetrician Steve Meacham and others, in forming B4 Babies and Beyond, so low-income women could have access to free prenatal care.
Unlike other national insurance companies who pays shareholders, Rocky Mountain Health Plans pumps money back into the community, Pramenko said.
RMHP contributes to Medicaid and Medicare so that those patients can have access to physicians equal to those who are commercially insured. At the same time RMHP's system ensures a more equitable reimbursement rate to physicians who see Medicaid and Medicare patients.
RMHP also helps fund Marillac Clinic, Quality Health Network — a health information exchange that has won national recognition — and the B4 Babies and Beyond program.
“You've got multiple health insurance companies offering products in town,” Pramenko said. “One of them (RMHP) is focused on Main Street. The others are focused on Wall Street.”
Former Washington Post correspondent and best-selling health care writer T.R. Reid has traveled around the world comparing health care systems.
In every other rich democracy, everybody is covered while spending half of what the United States spends on health care, Reid said during a panel discussion following a screening Wednesday in Grand Junction of the film “U.S. Health Care: The Good News.”
Reid also visited towns and cities across the U.S. to learn the reason for such huge variations among communities in health care spending. He learned Grand Junction ranks at the top for providing quality care while keeping costs low, thanks to a group of local doctors and community leaders who formed, nearly 40 years ago, a nonprofit insurance organization called Rocky Mountain Health Maintenance Organization, which later became Rocky Mountain Health Plans.
Grand Junction is one of three communities featured in “U.S. Health Care: The Good News.” The film was produced by Lisa Hartman of Photopia Productions in Denver, in cooperation with Rocky Mountain PBS.
The preview screening held at St. Mary's Hospital in the Saccomanno Room was attended by 300 people, an audience comprised primarily of St. Mary's physicians and board members, key staff members of Rocky Mountain Health Plans, and Rocky Mountain PBS donors and volunteers.
When asked why he chose to feature Grand Junction in the PBS documentary, Reid said, “I didn't. The Dartmouth Atlas chose Grand Junction.”
The Dartmouth Atlas Project, based in Hanover, N.H., at Dartmouth College, studies and publishes information regarding the disparity of how medical resources are distributed and used across the U.S.
“The guys at Dartmouth took on a project studying Medicare billing records (all public information except for patients' names),” Reid said. “They compared hundreds of millions of records and they found something amazing. There are huge variations in costs. There are no rules to say how much anybody should pay to fix a broken wrist.”
Even allowing for cost-of-living differences, prices should not vary by a factor of 300, Reid said.
For example, a particular treatment that might cost $1,000 in Grand Junction, might cost $3,000 in Miami — for the same treatment, and same result, Reid said. A lot of the health care cost disparity was found due to unnecessary medical procedures and higher doctor salaries elsewhere.
“In Grand Junction there's more of a collaboration between health care facilities and providers, than in most places,” said Dr. Michael Pramenko, one of the local physicians interviewed in the film.
The film also spotlights certified nurse-midwife Janet Grant who was instrumental along with obstetrician Steve Meacham and others, in forming B4 Babies and Beyond, so low-income women could have access to free prenatal care.
Unlike other national insurance companies who pays shareholders, Rocky Mountain Health Plans pumps money back into the community, Pramenko said.
RMHP contributes to Medicaid and Medicare so that those patients can have access to physicians equal to those who are commercially insured. At the same time RMHP's system ensures a more equitable reimbursement rate to physicians who see Medicaid and Medicare patients.
RMHP also helps fund Marillac Clinic, Quality Health Network — a health information exchange that has won national recognition — and the B4 Babies and Beyond program.
“You've got multiple health insurance companies offering products in town,” Pramenko said. “One of them (RMHP) is focused on Main Street. The others are focused on Wall Street.”
A new Rocky Mountain PBS documentary, featuring Grand Junction, will air nationally 9 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16.
Locally, PBS is on channel 18 over the air and on Dish; and channel 6 on Optimum. |
