Health & Healthcare

The Long-Overlooked Solution To Upend Health Care Economics: Bringing the Hospital Home

May 4, 2023 11:35 AM ET
Campaign: Aflac News and Updates
The cost of health care can be reduced through a mix of preventative and at-home care.
The cost of health care can be reduced through a mix of preventative and at-home care. Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Originally published in Fortune

By ROBERT REISS

For two decades I’ve been on hospital boards, observing the challenges of our national health system. Now, after personally interviewing over 100 leading health care CEOs, the problem is becoming clear: The current incentive system is actually backwards. It favors services rendered in hospitals by reacting to illness instead of preventing it and creating wellness.

“From an insurance perspective, we know the extraordinary value of preventative care, particularly when dealing with potentially catastrophic challenges like cancer or heart disease. From a human perspective, we know that the chances of survival rise exponentially with early detection. We also know that from a financial outlook, preventing a disease is a lot less costly than treating one for both the patient and insurance carrier,” Virgil Miller, the president of Aflac U.S., told me.

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