Stephen Wood
Senior Vice President
Ingenix Consulting
Excellence in Healthcare
Back in 1982, Stephen Wood wrote his Masters thesis on the skyrocketing costs in healthcare and how those costs weren't sustainable over the long run. If he only knew… Today, he says we're faced with a genuine certifiable crisis.
"I think we all have to be excited about the possibility of solving genuine problems—both in terms of costs and access to healthcare right now," Wood says. "We have this opportunity to address it head on and say that it's not OK that 45 million don't have insurance coverage. We have a real opportunity to take a cold, hard dispassionate look at ourselves and say we can do better."
Wood, a senior vice president of government program optimization business for Ingenix Consulting, serves as the leader of the government payer segment, and is a primary resource in the Medicaid and Medicare Services market. "I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how can we serve the populations we need to serve while fairly compensating everyone involved," Wood says. The goal is to make the system more efficient and not allow companies to benefit from activities that might not be in the public interest, such as high premiums and crumby benefits."
As a leading voice in the industry, Wood was consulted by President Obama's campaign when it defined its healthcare reform plan. So, does he think we're heading for universal healthcare coverage? "The stars seem to be aligned and things do seem to be happening, but the cost of universal healthcare is breathtaking. This isn't chump change, we're talking a trillion dollars. Where is it going to come from?" Wood asks. "And it's not a one-time investment. We need these solutions, but can we afford them? I don't know."
What he does know, however, is there will be dramatic change to Medicare and Medicaid. "My fear is that the changes will only occur in Medicare and Medicaid and those programs will pay the price for becoming "more efficient," in other words, they'll have less money devoted to them," Wood says. "If you believe change is good than this is the profession for you. And right now, in my world, it's probably as interesting as it will ever get."
—Joseph Kornik
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