We were honored to have John Hawkins, Senior Vice President of Government Relations, and Julie Chicoine, Senior Vice President and General Counsel , of Texas Hospital Association as our speakers at the Austin Healthcare Think Tank in July. They were a dynamic duo!
Julie Chicoine is a registered nurse and attorney with extensive practice in health law, including expertise in coding and compliance. Prior to her role at THA, Chicoine served at OSU Wexner Medical Center in both legal and compliance roles, including senior associate general counsel since 2010. She brings 22 years’ worth of experience as an attorney working in a variety of health care environments.
Chicoine was kind enough to share her PowerPoint Presentation Transition to Value Based Payment for us to post on the website. Here is the link for that presentation:
THA presentation Value Based Payment May 2016
Julie also sent her notes as well:
Talking Points on Aging Population
Population Facts:
- 2/3 of all of the people who have ever lived past the age of 65 in the entire history of the world are alive today. See, Age Wave, Ken Dychtwald
- For the first time in the history of our nation, we have more than five generations living. Silent generation, greatest generation, boomers, generation X, Generation Y and millenials.
US Life Expectancy
- 1776 – 36
- 1916 – 54
- 1935 – 62 (Social Security)
- 1965 – 66 (Medicare and Medicaid)
- 2014 – 79
Entitlements: Medicare and Social Security (Old Age Survivor and Disability Income Program)
- Americans 65 or older
- 1963 – 7.5 million
- 2015 – 55 million
- 2030 – 80 million
- When Social Security was enacted, life expectancy was 62 and there were 42 workers for each “aged” beneficiary.
- Today, life expectancy is 79 and there are less than 3 workers for each “aged” beneficiary
- 42% of the entire Federal budget is spent on Medicare and Social Security
- Every day 10,000 Boomers in the US turn 70.
Costs – Medicare
- 1967 – $4.6 billion
- 2014 – $600 billion
- “CBO projects that in just 10 years (2024) Medicare spending will reach nearly $1.1 trillion.”
Future Costs
- Costs associated with an aging population.
- Alzheimer’s afflicts one in two people over age 85.
- Alzheimer population in the US is currently 5 million and is expected to grow to 15 million by 2050 with a cost of 20 trillion $
- Health care access. We have fewer than 5,000 geriatricians in the US.
- Only 8 of the 145 AMC’s in the US have full geriatrics departments
Thoughts for Discussion.
Medicare was established as a short term program. It was never intended to be a health insurance program for chronically ill medically fragile population for an average of 20 years.
- Social Security was enacted as the Old Age Survivor and Disability Income program, intended for final years. Never intended to be the pension program it has become.
Questions… At what age do we become “old” and what does that mean both in terms of policy, employment and healthcare?