Industry offers ideas for lower health care costs

HELENA – Health care experts told lawmakers today their industry could do three things to make care more affordable: improve administrative efficiency, make costs more transparent, and expand insurance and preventative care programs.

The suggestions came from a panel of doctors, insurance executives and hospital officials who met with the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee to offer ideas for improving access to care in Montana.

“What we need to do is not just sit back and wait on what they might come up with in Washington D.C.,” said Sen. Roy Brown, R-Billings and chairman of the committee.

Dirk Visser, CEO of insurance giant Allegiance, said many Montanans are uninsured for two reasons: they don't want insurance or can't afford it. Visser said high costs are to blame.

“Are they reasonable? Are they appropriate? Are they necessary? Are there alternatives?” Visser asked the committee. “This outrageous inflation, or marking up, of healthcare costs … is really what is driving our health insurance costs.”

Dr. Nicholas Wolter, CEO of Billings Clinic, said pricing for medical services could be more accountable if hospitals and doctors communicated more effectively with one another about costs.

“We will not get that accountability if we don’t have cooperation between the hospitals,” Wolter said.

Panelists also agreed that insurance forms and benefits needed to be simplified. That would require cooperation between insurers and care providers.

New West Health Services CEO David Kibbe said the health care industry has not thought hard enough about reform. He said more physicians would be primary care doctors if the job paid better, allowing for a better doctor-to-patient ratio in initial and continued care.

Other panelists included State Auditor Monica Lindeen, Kevin Larson of Employee Benefit Management Services and a representative from the American Medical Association.

-by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy