Cape News

New health innovations and a growing understanding of chronic diseases offer opportunities to improve American health care, according to witnesses at a Ways and Means Health Subcommittee hearing. The focus was on prevention, as more than half of Americans suffer from chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and obesity. These illnesses impact both public health and the economy, with Medicare and Medicaid spending $384 billion annually on treatment.

The hearing explored how employers empower workers to make healthier choices and the role of early detection screening tests in identifying chronic diseases before they become severe. However, government regulations can hinder the use of these tests for Medicare patients.

Rep. Vern Buchanan raised concerns about lung cancer screenings: “Mr. Carlson, you talked about prevention... There could be a lot more positive impact if we had more screening for everybody.” Dr. Jay Carlson noted that administrative barriers complicate lung cancer screenings: “Lung cancer in particular... If they have the smoking history and meet the criteria, eliminate the shared decision making.”

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) were highlighted as flexible options for covering preventive treatments. Marcie Strouse shared her experience with HSAs' rising popularity among small businesses: “HSAs have become quite popular over the last several years... There are definitely things that we can do to expand the HSAs.”

Preventive care currently receives only three percent of health care spending but could save lives and money. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick emphasized this point: “America invests less than 3 percent of health care spending on preventative service.” Dr. Carlson agreed that early diagnosis is cost-effective: “There’s no doubt that treating an early diagnosis is going to be less expensive.”

Employers can play a significant role in providing preventive care through Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRAs). Marcie Strouse discussed innovative solutions for small businesses: “One of the things that I haven’t had a chance to discuss today are direct primary care providers.”

Patient privacy remains crucial when offering preventive services like discounted access to healthy food and fitness equipment. Brooks Tingle explained how his life insurance company handles this: “If one of our customers wants to access GRAIL Galleri test is strictly between them and Grail... Quite frequently now, we have those customers come forward.”