"The Ronan Report" provides insight about the activities at the Western Maryland Health System in Cumberland, Maryland, and about the changes taking place in healthcare today from a CEO's perspective.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Additional Tidbits from Anirban Basu

Yesterday, I blogged about our board meeting last Friday and the value that Anirban Basu brought to our board.  In yesterday's blog, I focused on his presentation related to the proposed alliance; in today's blog, I will provide some of the additional information that he covered.  His tidbits worth sharing are as follows:
The US economic recovery is in it's fifth year but still very weak at 2.1%

Health Care spending is at it's lowest in 50 years; the average annual growth has slowed to 3.5% over the past five years and 1.5% is attributable to inflation

The contributing factors to the slowing of health care spending are use rates are down, quality reimbursement has been instituted along with evidence based medicine protocols.  The recession also played a part

The increase in the national debt for 2012 was $1.7 trillion and for 2013 it's "only" $640 billion

Since April 2013, we have added just under 200K jobs; in a year the US has added 2.3 million jobs predominantly in the business sector but many are temporary or part time jobs.  Other leading sectors include: Hospitality, Travel, Transportation and Health Care.

By 2020, the US will be the largest producer of oil.  Currently, we are third with Saudi Arabia being first and Russia second.

The states with the greatest job growth are all oil producing states: Idaho, Texas, North Dakota, Utah, Montana and Nevada.  The economies of Arizona and Florida are racing back to normal with new housing and tourism.  Maryland is 14th  due to the high number of government jobs added, but of late our unemployment rate has increased to 7% (national rate is 7.6%)

The US is unique in that health care delivery is very comprehensive.  Cardiac surgery being delivered in western Maryland would not occur for example, in England.  Hospitals that are located outside of large cities in other industrialized countries provide primary care for the most part.  Individuals have to travel to large cities for comprehensive health care services.

Health care expenditures at 18% of the Gross Domestic Production is still high for an industrialized country but not as high as some may think for a civilized compassionate society like the US

As I blogged yesterday, Anirban is fascinating with his wealth, scope and depth of knowledge.

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