Competition is Key to Healthcare System Stability for Employers, Providers and Patients, Expert Says

Market competition is a powerful and underutilized tool in the health policy space, according to Christoph Dankert, chief network officer of Carrum Health, who recently sat down with Managed Healthcare Executive to talk about the shifting landscape of healthcare payments.

“As a company, what we have seen work is harnessing the power of the market’s competition,” Dankert said in a video interview. “We find providers who are cost-effective and very high quality and then they get rewarded with more business. If that provider isn't cost-effective anymore, then we'll go out and take another look at the market. We believe that if there is more competition between providers, that can lead to more efficiencies. This idea to use competition to drive efficiencies is a very powerful one, and I don't think we've seen enough of that on the health policy side.”

Christoph Dankert

Dankert also said that while he isn’t worried about how healthcare networks could handle potential Medicaid cuts, their response depends on how the cuts are structured.

“There are 160 million individuals who have insurance through their employer or their spouse’s employer or their parents’ employer, and so I think even if there are mercurial changes in Medicaid eligibility, that's probably only a fraction of that 160 million,” Dankert said.

Dankert also emphasized that from a commercial perspective, it’s important that networks have enough space capacity for a potential influx of uninsured individuals.