Obama and Romney agree: The Mayo Clinic delivers better, "cheaper" healthcare

   

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayo_clinic

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The Cleveland and Mayo Clinics do it better

The candidates agreed during the debate that more needs to be done to control the cost of health care.

Obama praised the Cleveland Clinic as a model for new ways of controlling the cost of care. "They actually provide great care cheaper than average," he said. "And the reason they do is because they do some smart things."

One approach he highlighted was the collaborative approach of the clinic's doctors. Instead of each doctor ordering a different test, they meet and decide as a team how to approach the patient's problem. They also provide preventive care.

Obama has held the clinic up as a model throughout his time in office. He visited it in 2009. It is a top-ranked teaching hospital that attracts patients from around the world. An analysis done by theDartmouth Atlas of Health Care found that the Cleveland Clinic did treat Medicare patients for tens of thousands of dollars less than many other medical centers.

One of the big differences between the Cleveland Clinic and other hospitals is that it and other multi-specialty clinics like the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota employ their own doctors and can create these teams. In most traditional hospitals, doctors are independent private practitioners who are left to making their own choices.

Cleveland Clinic's success secret

Because Cleveland Clinic's doctors are paid fixed salaries, there is less incentive to order unnecessary tests or procedures compared to a doctor working on his or her own who receives a bump in their fee.

As of right now, Medicare acts a lot like those traditional hospitals do, Thorpe said. "If you take the typical patient who is chronically ill, they will be overweight or obese, they suffer from bad cholesterol, hypertension, asthma and diabetes -- that means they take 10 to 15 medications and there is no team-based care," he said.

"Going to separate doctors with their own plans is expensive. These integrated group plans work well and the ongoing preventive care they provide -- working with doctors, nutritionists, nurses, nurse practitioners and the rest -- ultimately save on costs."