Health care cost reduction

The obvious goal of therapy for the depressed patient is the resolution of depressive symptoms and a return to euthymia. Once symptoms have resolved, then the purpose of ongoing therapy is to prevent relapse and recurrence of depressive symptoms. One extremely important outcome in the treatment of MDD is the prevention of suicidal attempts. Other essential outcomes include improvement of the patient s quality of life, normalization of functioning in areas such as work and relationships, avoidance or minimization of adverse effects, and reduction of health care costs.15... 

In the analysis of health care the price of care is often confused with the level of expenditure, particularly so in the analysis of the cost of pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceutical cost containment should never be the exclusive goal of public policies emphasis on costs without paying attention to the value of the products may lead to inefficient policies. The value of a new pharmaceutical resides in its ability to improve health, not just in its contribution to the decrease or increase of health care costs. Increased spending on health care and pharmaceuticals is therefore compatible with a reduction in their price, if the resulting value increases more than the expenditure. 

Table 2 Hospital-based clinical pharmacy services associated with reductions in health care costs...

The ratio of indirect-to-direct costs— in the neighborhood of 0.8 to 1—reflects the significant differences in indirect and direct cost increases. Computations show approximately a 49 percent reduction of the 1.6-to-l average ratio shown in the Stanford report. As workers compensation health care costs continue to increase at a rate considerably higher than inflation, the value of the ratios in the Stanford report will diminish further. 

As individuals age, their capacity for work diminishes, although they may continue to engage in informal work or smallholder agriculture. As they become very old, their ability to rely on their own earnings will further decrease, and at the same time, their health care costs will likely increase. Formalization of the labor market makes a gradual reduction of work eflfort more difficult, and retirement then tends to become the norm. 

The relationship between these factors and the reduction in health care costs achieved by the worksite health promotion program was assessed. 

The gains for society of improved chemicals control may be substantial, though not easy to quantify in monetary terms. They include, for example, reduced costs for health care as a result of fewer accidents with chemicals, fewer acute health effects caused by poisonings, skin corrosion or bums, reduced risk for chronic effects such as allergies, cancer, etc. Furthermore, improved chemicals control will lead to a reduction of costs for remediation of environmental damage and of other costs following from emissions, e.g. water and soil pollution due to accidents or misuse of chemicals. 

Decreasing overall costs of health care, in fine with a reduction in adverse drug effects, number of failed drug trials, time for approval, length of time patients are on medication and time to find an effective therapy. 

The current health care paradigm is shifting toward the reduction of health care expenditmes without adversely impacting quality of care. Cost and quality... 

Depression is a eommon psychopathology that causes significant impairment and incurs large personal and social costs in the form of lost productivity and health care expenses (75). Reduction of serotonergic neurotransmission is strongly implicated in the neuropathology of depression (76). There are several antidepressants in the market exerting their effect by... 

---