Frugal Cases in Healthcare

FRUGAL CHOICE IN HEALTHCARE

The Duke Hefland article "Anthem Blue Cross promotes alternatives to expensive emergency room visits" is published in the Business: Money and Company section of the July 7, 2011 edition of the Los Angeles Times.

Article Summary

Anthem Blue Cross is the largest for-profit health insurance company in California; recently they have introduced an online service (California ER Alternative Finder) that provides their clients a fast way to locate urgent care centers and retail health clinics throughout the state. Clients enter and address or Zip Code, the finder returns healthcare plan providers, their location with a map and contact information. Through this service, Anthem is addressing a nationwide emergency room overuse issue that assists in driving healthcare costs skyward (while having a lessening affects on access the healthcare through "ER-clogging").

In support of Hefland's (and Anthem's) focus on the overuse of emergency rooms to treat minor ailments, Hefland references a study done by the Rand Corporation that was conducted in 2010 and reflects that "27% of emergency room visits could be handled by urgent care centers or retail clinics, potentially saving $4.4 billion in healthcare costs annually."

Article Relevance

Anthem (and others) understands that treatment alternatives can produce dramatic savings; the finder-initiative is just another cog of a cost-containment strategy. Containing costs is an element of survival strategy in the healthcare industry and is a major plank of the recent Healthcare Reform Policy where insurance companies are major players.

By implementing the online service, Anthem hopes to further steer their clients away from the excessive costs incurred for emergency room visits and toward less expensive treatment options for non-emergent