The Healthcare Reform Bill Should Improve Healthcare Quality and the Healthcare Delivery System

• The new healthcare reform bill will reduce preventable readmissions, due to a lack of quality healthcare. Within 1 month of discharge, 20% of Medicare patients are readmitted to the hospital. In California, that translates to 165,000 readmissions yearly. More focus on primary care and financial incentives for hospitals to do better with arranging follow-up care at discharge time will help to lower readmission rates.
  
  
• Paperwork will diminish. Presently, doctors use up 140 hours yearly and $69,000 in resources dealing with health insurance paperwork and bureaucracy. In California, there are 115,740 doctors, which means 16 million hours of paperwork and $7.8 billion in resources. The simplification of the process means physicians can spend more time on their patients.
  
  
• There would be incentives for doctors to practice primary care. A 5 to 10% pay raise would be in effect for the 45,700 California doctors in that field.
  
  
• This would encourage the growth of the primary health care field. There are 3.3 million (9%) of Californians without access to a primary care doctor. Programs with the new bill would help grow programs in rural areas and those with doctor shortages.

Overall the healthcare reform bill is setting the stage for many positive changes.