Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/316458
Tablets & Capsules May 2014 9 According to a January 2012 report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, total healthcare spending was nearly $2.7 trillion in 2011, which amounts to about $8,680 per person [1]. The same report put the cost of Medicare at $554.3 billion and the cost of Medicaid at $407.7 billion. While we may have the best and most innovative system, the growing costs are pro- jected to become unaffordable in the near future. Right now, spending on healthcare accounts for about a 17 per- cent share of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP), and it is projected to grow at an average rate of 5.8 per- cent from 2012 to 2022, 1 percent faster than the expected average annual growth in the GDP [2]. The Kaiser Family Foundation cites three main con- tributors to the rising cost of healthcare: 1. Technology and prescription drug products 2. The increase in chronic diseases 3. Administrative costs But let's look at the problem from a different perspec- tive, a packaging perspective. What can packaging— especially packaging with reminder features—do to improve the situation, particularly for the aging or senior population? The costs of chronic diseases One of the biggest drivers of healthcare costs is chronic disease. Heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes account for seven of every 10 deaths and 75 percent of the more than $2 trillion we as a nation spend on healthcare [3]. Chronic conditions afflict 23 percent of Medicare beneficiaries yet they account for 68 percent of total Medicare spending [4]. Furthermore, 43 percent of the American population has at least one chronic condition, and spending on their behalf consumes almost 80 percent of healthcare dollars [5]. Based on this information, it makes sense to focus on how packaging can help in the treatment of chronic con- ditions, including hypertension, arthritis, diabetes, and cancer. The US healthcare system devotes most of its resources to treatment of acute complications and/or late- stage interventions of chronic illness. We devote much less spending to efforts to slow the progression or to pre- vent the complications of chronic illness. That should come as no surprise, since physicians earn most of their pay by treating a condition or an illness, not by prevent- ing onset. Plus, many people fail to self-manage to pre- vent or mitigate illness or disease, and many seek treat- ment too late. Every age group is affected by chronic conditions, which directly influence the quality of life and the cost of healthcare. But the older the patients, the more likely they are to suffer from one or more chronic conditions [7]. Naturally, as new health problems appear, doctors and other health professionals spend more resources to treat them. Not only do these chronic conditions inflate health- care costs, they also make people more and more depen- dent on outside help and increase the number of doctor visits, specialist visits, and hospitalizations. This occurs even though the condition, illness, or disease is, in many cases, very inexpensive to treat with ongoing medication. Treatment of stroke victims is a good example. For less than $5.00 per day for medication that controls hyperten- sion, the number of people suffering a stroke can be sig- nificantly reduced. Yet the cost of supporting a stroke vic- tim who suffers from a high degree of incapacitation can easily exceed $100,000 per year. Preventing a percentage of these events from occurring would reduce costs signifi- cantly across the entire healthcare system. Prevention would also add to the number of years a person could enjoy good, or at least better, health. Figure 3 illustrates how untreated chronic conditions limit people's activities. Support from in-home nurses and other healthcare professionals is expensive, and the chart in Figure 4 shows the strain that these conditions place on healthcare services in terms of physician visits and hospital treat- Figure 1 National health expenditures, 2010 [6] Govt. public health activities 3% Net cost of health insurance 6% Retail—other products 3% Home health care 3% Nursing home care 5% Other health, residential, and personal care 5% Other professional services 7% Physician/clinical services 20% Hospital care 31% Retail—Rx drugs 10% Govt. administration 1% Investment 6% Figure 2 Chronic conditions by age group [7] 0-19 100 80 60 40 20 0 20-44 Ages 45-64 65+ Percent of population One chronic condition Two or more chronic conditions c-Bauerart_8-13_Masters 5/14/14 10:13 AM Page 9