Alaska is seeing health care successes

The cost of health care is a topic just about everywhere. As a school and acute care nurse, a patient and a board member of a non-profit health trust, I am getting asked about it or am hearing about it all the time.

I do not profess to be an expert on the topic, but because of my job and other volunteer roles, I’ve collected a certain amount of knowledge. Here are a few things that I have observed that stand out to me:

• The private sector does a better job of managing cost and providing care than government-run systems. A quick look at Washington state’s state-run system underscores this fact. Last year, Washington pooled all public school district employees, costing the state $800 million more than expected. That’s an increase of more than 35%.
• Our Alaska lawmakers are working to find ways to improve the process and should be commended for their efforts. However, millions of dollars have been spent on studies to develop data that all points back to the same thing: A state-run system will be costly and largely ineffective.
• Negotiating with local hospitals works. Public Education Health Trust, where I serve as a trustee, has a contract with Providence Alaska Medical Center that will save our members $3 million in 2020.
• Alaska organizations are using innovative ideas that are working to keep downward pressure on the cost of care while maintaining quality outcomes. BridgeHealth is an example. It is a medical tourism organization providing access to centers of excellence for scheduled procedures at substantial savings. It is nimble and has the ability to respond to savings opportunities when they arise, negotiating direct contracts with hospitals, providers and pharmacy benefits, providing telemedicine and telehealth options 24/7.

There are no simple answers to the complicated questions of health care. Costs are a challenge in any environment, but Public Education Health Trust (PEHT) has found success in its work to drive costs down in Alaska.

PEHT supports stable, early and consistent support for K-12 education and that is part of why we work to keep health care costs down. In the past three years we have saved the State of Alaska nearly $156 million dollars, approximately $52 million per year, through innovation, our ability to make quick adaptations and by negotiating lower rates for our plan holders. We are a nonprofit that unites large and small Alaska school districts together to combine their purchasing power. This leads to reduced costs and increases the availability of benefits.

Overall, for five years, PEHT’s plan cost has averaged just a 2.7% increase. In several of those years, our plan costs have either decreased or seen no increases.

Other trusts are finding success as well. In fact, Fred Brown, executive director of another Alaska based organization, the Pacific Health Coalition, was recently elected president of the National Labor Alliance of Health Care Coalitions (NLA). The NLA is a nonprofit national organization of management, health and welfare coalitions representing more than six million members nationally. He was elected in part because of the innovation and excellence of trusts in Alaska.

This leads me to ask, if we are being viewed nationally as a success and can point to millions of dollars in savings: Is the Last Frontier leading the way in lowering health care costs?

There are many relevant conversations about health care happening now, but maybe it is time to talk about some of Alaska’s ingenuity in the field and how it is working.

Kathleen Bell, RN, has worked as a registered nurse since 1981. She currently works as an acute care and school nurse in Anchorage. She is also serves as a trustee for the Public Education Health Trust. She is a past president of the Alaska School Nurse Association; a member of the Alaska Nurses Association and a long-time secretary and executive board member of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, Alaska Chapter. She earned an associate degree in nursing from Daytona Beach Community College and a bachelor’s in nursing from UAA.

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