> Not OP, but I think the underlying meaning is that the focus on profit is primary. As in when it aligns with better patient outcomes it’s going to happen and that’s great.
> But probably there are a ton of scenarios where profit is anti-aligned with patient outcomes and the decisions are made still to maximize profit.
It may align in their financial interests for most of these required preventive services[0] but there are some that very obviously don't like lung cancer (it would be cheaper to let smokers die quickly than to put them on immunotherapy + SBRT) and others with weak evidence, I doubt a good cost-benefit analysis has been performed for weight counseling.
Point being is that insurers are not the final say in a lot of this, the ACA did add a lot of requirements for them. But I concede there are times they don't, OP is just being overly harsh here and "improving health outcomes" isn't an insurance-specific PR line it has been used in academia and the government for a while now, even in public health systems.
> But probably there are a ton of scenarios where profit is anti-aligned with patient outcomes and the decisions are made still to maximize profit.
It may align in their financial interests for most of these required preventive services[0] but there are some that very obviously don't like lung cancer (it would be cheaper to let smokers die quickly than to put them on immunotherapy + SBRT) and others with weak evidence, I doubt a good cost-benefit analysis has been performed for weight counseling.
Point being is that insurers are not the final say in a lot of this, the ACA did add a lot of requirements for them. But I concede there are times they don't, OP is just being overly harsh here and "improving health outcomes" isn't an insurance-specific PR line it has been used in academia and the government for a while now, even in public health systems.
[0] https://www.healthcare.gov/preventive-care-adults/