Talking about the Business of Healthcare on November 14

I'm excited to be on a panel titled "The Business of Healthcare: Understanding the Value Equation from a CEO and CFO Perspective" at Becker's Hospital Review's 11th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable, taking place at 10:40 a.m. on Tuesday, November 14 at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago. I'll be alongside Darryl Linnington, Chief Financial Officer, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center; Phillip M. Kambic, President and Chief Executive Officer, Riverside Medical Center; Anisha Sood, Chief Financial and Strategy Officer, First Choice Health and Jennifer Wandersleben, Chief Executive Officer, AdventHealth West Florida.

View all the sessions and learn more about this meeting here. #BeckersCEOCFO

Why is old age so unhealthy in the US?

Jessica Hall asks a wonderful question: Why is Old Age so Unhealthy in the US?

More importantly, her article offers valuable insights into the grim realities of healthcare in your waning years. Hall offers us a new way to measure and evaluate the last stage of life - Healthy Life Expectancy. This metric attempts to distinguish between life expectancy and a healthy life expectancy. In other words, it compares your healthy length of life to your total life expectancy.

In short, living longer is not the real goal, rather living longer healthfully is the real goal. Take Japan vs. the US, for instance. In the US, our life expectancy is 78 (ranked 40th in the world). Yet our healthy life expectancy is only 66.1 (ranked 68th in the world). That's a significant drop. By contrast, Japan has the longest life expectancy at 84.3 years, and the longest healthy life expectancy at 74.1.

So, why does the US rank so poorly throughout the world? After all, the U.S. spends virtually double what these other advanced countries spend on healthcare. The obvious conclusion is that the US is spending its healthcare dollars on the wrong care.

Hall's article sheds light on this situation: “In recent decades, we have successfully extended our lifespans - [but] the years of dependable good health - have not kept up, remaining at an average age of 66 years. Americans will spend 12 years living with a disability or serious disease - and people do not want to spend the last 12 years with the wheels coming off…”

These facts should be of tremendous concern to health policy experts. Given the rapidly aging population and the burden of healthcare in the US, these realities call for a dramatic change in our healthcare policy.

Two reform opportunities standout above all the others: 1. Recenter the importance of primary care. 2. Implement well documented care models for end-of-life care. These two areas of focus should be how we shift US healthcare policy and investment.

If these topics pique your interest, you may wish to read my book The Journey’s End.

Jimmy Carter's real gift

This week, the New York Times published an opinion essay by Dr. Daniela Lamas describing former President Jimmy Carter's decision to enter hospice early as a fitting final gift from a former president to Americans who've long hesitated to face their morality. I agree with Dr. Lamas' assessment and noted in a Letter to the Editor that Mr. Carter's real gift may be helping us all to overcome our reservations and misguided stereotypes about hospice care. You can read Dr. Lamas' essay and my response by clicking on the links.