Dive Brief:
- An excess of hospital beds in New Jersey and New York seems to be leading to delivery of more care, and to more people dying in an ICU.
- Among the reasons for the high utilization of services is that in the medical culture of New York, highly-trained specialists working to solve problems cross-refer to each other, driving the high treatment rate.
- However, as value-based care becomes the prevalent standard of reimbursement, rather than fee-for-service, hospitals and physicians will be penalized for high admission rates. As a result, clinicians have made a beginning by discussing at end-of-life care options such as hospice, which reduces bed utilization and makes the patient more comfortable.
Dive Insight:
The issue of excess beds driving higher levels of utilization is not a new one. It's a well-known phenomenon in the industry that the more capacity you provide, the more it will be used, even if the number of beds available exceeds the expected needs of the population. In other words, what's happening in New York and New Jersey is not surprising. In fact, it's an expected response to the situation.
But these days, providers across the nation are under new pressure to address it as penalties for excess readmissions and other quality and volume-based measures encourage them to avoid over-treatment. If health leaders don't get together and look at ways to avoid over-treatment, they are likely to pay financial penalties, especially if they involve themselves in accountable care organizations. Providers need to find a way to discipline themselves to avoid excess care in these situations, as the default mode clearly isn't working.