[mike777]

There is a research report out by John Wennberg and Dartmouth Medical School that concludes if everyone in the country went to the Mayo Clinic we could save 500 billion dollars a year and improve the quality of health care.

Can some money hungry capitalist perhaps make some real bucks based on this model?

I hope the big media and other experts in the field pick up on this study and see if there is something here worthwhile that can be implemented for the whole country.
I can only hope and pray this study can help fuel further discussion and debate and not end up in the trashbin of history.

[helene_t]

Yes. Ben, Gnome and I were reviewers on the paper and we rushed to buy $1,000,000,000 of Mayo call options before recomending it for publication. Now we can finance a number of BBF teams at the European Open in Antalya so you better not take this story to the tabloid press, it's your stakes as well.

Btw, did they factor in the fact that in order to treat everyone in the US they would have to hire all the quacksalvers that currently work for other hospitals?

Seriously, I think Mayo clinic is fine allthough not going to hospital and just taking responsibility of your own health would be even better in most cases. This is my opinion based on experience in Europe, and I know you Americans consult physicians even more often than we do.

[Winstonm]

Problem with this is the 40-year wait to get an appointment.

[helene_t]

Winstonm, on Apr 6 2007, 03:18 PM, said:

Problem with this is the 40-year wait to get an appointment.

That's where the $500,000,000,000 come from: most patients will be dead before they make it to hospital.

Btw, is it really true? Almost 2,000 bugs per person per year? Suppose you go to hospital on average once per five year. So you could save 20,000 bugs each time. Suppose it costs your employer (plus the revenue service, your insurance and yourself) 500 bugs per working day it takes before you recover. That's 8 working weeks earlier recovery after a Mayo surgery than after a regular surgery. I'm impressed. In my whole life I've been admitted to hospital 7 times (of which 2 times before I was old enough to work), in total it has costed me 17 or 18 work days. Suppose Mayo could have reduced that by 50%. To meet the 40*2,000=80,000 Mayo saving, I should be worth nearly $9,000 per day.

[Winstonm]

helene_t, on Apr 7 2007, 08:42 AM, said:

Winstonm, on Apr 6 2007, 03:18 PM, said:

Problem with this is the 40-year wait to get an appointment.

That's where the $500,000,000,000 come from: most patients will be dead before they make it to hospital.

Btw, is it really true? Almost 2,000 bugs per person per year? Suppose you go to hospital on average once per five year. So you could save 20,000 bugs each time. Suppose it costs your employer (plus the revenue service, your insurance and yourself) 500 bugs per working day it takes before you recover. That's 8 working weeks earlier recovery after a Mayo surgery than after a regular surgery. I'm impressed.

Unfortunately, all "bug" savings are eradicated as usual by government excess, so with the NSA wiretapping bugs added back in there is a deficit - financed by foreign bugs who buy the "bug bonds".

[mike777]

"....we could save 500 billion dollars a year and improve the quality of health care."



Winston:Why would there be any wait at all to get into a Mayo clinic if the model is adopted. Once again your logic seems nonexistant. You think there is only one location or something? Nonsense. That shows a complete lack of understanding of the model. How would that improve health care coverage?

Helene: Are you saying you read the report and find it unworkable?

[Winstonm]

Quote

if everyone in the country went to the Mayo Clinic

Notice, the wording does not say "a Mayo Clinic" or "the Mayo Clinics" - sounded like a single clinic to me.