Last week the Managing Director of Advize Health, Jeanmarie Loria, was among those who attended the Forbes Healthcare Summit 2016. Widely regarded as the World’s Most Influential Healthcare Event, the 5th Annual Summit was held at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. The overarching theme of this year’s summit was “Solving Healthcare’s Biggest Challenges”, a mission that hits close to home for the Advize team. As we strive to fix healthcare through cost reduction and program integrity, the Forbes Health Summit is inspired by healthcare influencers and innovation as an approach to positive change. Exclusivity reigned supreme at this invite-only event, which was hosted by healthcare giants Mayo Clinic, KPMG, and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

Patient care and cost control were the front-runners of concern for many in attendance. The CEO of Novartis, a global healthcare company, made waves with startling statistics – mentioning that by the year 2030, chronic diseases will account for nearly 70% of the world’s disease burden. This dismal news is enough to stir up feelings of malaise – considering the financial impact this will have on healthcare around the world. A proposed solution to proactively combat the rising financial burden is to begin creating and implementing new healthcare pricing models. The introduction of alternative pricing models will open up access to advanced treatment without putting patients in debt.

How can this be accomplished?

It’s important to consider all cogs in the healthcare machine. For example, physicians should be taking advantage of low cost of generic-brand pharmaceuticals when prescribing to patients. Payors should become more actively engaged in cost reduction initiatives such as eradicating fraud, waste, and abuse with routine medical documentation audits. While individual efforts may seem minuscule when examining expenditures, the culmination of these efforts will have an effect on healthcare spending.

The Forbes Healthcare Summit goes on to suggest that, despite the opposition of many, quality healthcare can be delivered at a discount cost. When it comes to spending – what’s the prognosis? The road to financial recovery will be long and bumpy, but there is no industry more qualified to come up with a treatment plan for these financial maladies.