Harvard Medical School, VBID Health & MedInsight Twitter Chat on Healthcare Waste

Practical Analytic Approaches to Healthcare Challenges

Last week on Twitter, we hosted a Twitter chat with Milliman about healthcare waste in the industry.

Are you ready to discuss ways that the U.S. #healthcare industry can curb unnecessary spending? Tune into the #healthwaste chat today. pic.twitter.com/VJoa9nbukq

— Milliman, Inc. (@millimanhealth) August 2, 2018

MedInsight's Rich Moyer and Marcos Dachary were joined by Harvard Medical School's Dr. Michael Chernew and VBID Health's Dr. Mark Fendrick to answer questions posed by Milliman. Other healthcare professionals joined the discussion asking questions and offering ideas using the hashtag #healthwaste.

Please welcome our guests @RichCMoyer, @MarcosDachary, @Michael_Chernew, and @FendrickVBID. #healthwaste pic.twitter.com/rA1benzDyr

— Milliman, Inc. (@millimanhealth) August 2, 2018

This was the first time Rich Moyer or Marcos Dachary had ever participated in an event like this. And over the course of an hour, we saw a rich discussion about healthcare waste developing. This was a great opportunity for others in the industry to be able to ask questions directly to the healthcare experts on this panel.

A1. We simply cannot afford to have health care spending grow as fast as it has. Prices are a huge issue, but wasteful use also important. We need to reduce use of low value services while increasing access to high value services. #healthwaste https://t.co/oR3wHvl4nC

— Michael Chernew (@Michael_Chernew) August 2, 2018

A3 Identifying waste is getting easier thanks to efforts from https://t.co/ZaILsgWkAB #healthwaste https://t.co/C4up8eieqh

— Marcos Dachary (@MarcosDachary) August 2, 2018

And we need to turn Choosing Wisely recommendations into analytics to help quantify the efforts #healthwaste

— Marcos Dachary (@MarcosDachary) August 2, 2018

A3. Agree with @MarcosDachary. Washington Health Alliance did just that to identify $millions in #healthwaste. https://t.co/N63IgX9lGg @WAHealthCheckup

— UM V-BID Center (@UM_VBID) August 2, 2018

There are many demand and supply side levers to reduce #healthwaste. Better to use synergistically. pic.twitter.com/RBmEpwCCQL

— UM V-BID Center (@UM_VBID) August 2, 2018

A5. Graphical description of #clinicalnuance. A critical concept needed to reduce #healthwastehttps://t.co/EPFND2PPo8

— UM V-BID Center (@UM_VBID) August 2, 2018

A6 - we've been talking about unnecessary services, but large price variation is another one #healthwaste

— Rich Moyer (@RichCMoyer) August 2, 2018

A6. Agreed. #healthwaste. Main point is if we can't control spending by lowering growth in prices and wasteful use, we will have problems that extend well beyond the healthcare system and likely dramatic changes (for better or worse). I hope we are moving in right direction. https://t.co/NZ9kgMj1e8

— Michael Chernew (@Michael_Chernew) August 2, 2018

If our #healthwaste Twitter chat interested you, be sure to check out Milliman’s Critical Point podcast on healthcare waste to hear more from Marcos Dachary and MedInsight’s Dr. David Mirkin.

Thanks to our guests @RichCMoyer, @MarcosDachary, @Michael_Chernew, and @FendrickVBID for sharing their perspectives. #healthwaste

— Milliman, Inc. (@millimanhealth) August 2, 2018

Want more on #healthwaste from @MarcosDachary? Check out the @millimanhealth podcast Critical Point to hear him and MedInsight's Dr. David Mirkin discuss #healthcare #waste in depth: https://t.co/RBKXI5zG4m

— Milliman MedInsight (@MedInsight) August 2, 2018

We had a great time discussing healthcare waste with the community and look forward to doing another Twitter chat on a new topic in the future!