Healthcare industry expanding into preventative measures
The health care industry is beginning to expand its umbrella of cost coverage for activities that prevent illness and promote health and wellness, like nutritious meal planning and gym transportation.
"This is absolutely necessary," Dr. Mikhail Varshavski told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo during “Mornings with Maria” on Wednesday. "It's about time."
In a country with the single-highest spending on health care in the world and "not so good" health outcomes, insurance companies are delving deeper into preventative measures for patients to assist them before they fall ill.
This preventative care system focuses on providing patients with more feasible resources towards living a healthier lifestyle and accommodating their specific health issues and illnesses, Varshavski said.
"To have meals delivered to folks...to have transportation to go to the gym, to go to their doctors’ appointments - that's so important," he said.
The private sector is also seeing an uptick in doctor house calls in order to accommodate many elderly patients who don't necessarily possess the resources to get themselves to a doctor.
Before the start of this program, resources for some patients were scarce, he said. With this kind of financial and medical support, the health care industry's aim is to create an improvement in overall national health results.
In 2017, the U.S. spent nearly $3.5 trillion on health care, according to a U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) report. This spending is expected to rise 5.3% in 2018.
The CMS also estimated that health care spending will grow 5.5% annually from 2017 to 2026. Spending is anticipated to reach $5.7 trillion by 2026.