Statement from ACC

[wingrider]

On Stuff this morning in the Health section there is an article regarding ACC to rein in costs of medical scan tests.

I quote the following

"The cost of these scans (such as MRI and CT) has risen 120 percent in five years. That's a far greater rise than you would expect from inflation, claim numbers or any other factor," ACC director of health purchasing Gail Kettle said.



If they use the cost of inflation, claim numbers and other factors in the setting of fees payable by them, then it's only correct and to be accepted that they would use the same criteria when setting levies.

[Swoop]

Curse those naughty people who get hurt and go to hospital!
They are really inconveniencing the admin staff.

Surely we can go back to using leeches?

[riffer]

Hang on.

Haven't we had a whole lot of MRI and CT machines installed in hospitals and become more widely accepted diagnostic tools in the last five years?

It's a bit like saying we're noticing that in the last five years there's been a significant increase in the amount of motorcycles sold since 2004 crashing. Therefore these new bikes must be unsafe.

[MSTRS:Me]

Biker: Here's the data you wanted
ACC Statistician: Hmmm. I don't like this bit. Or this. Or that. And definitely not that entire section.
Biker: What should we do about it?
ACC Statistician: We ignore those bits.
Biker: Of course. That seems fair. Oh look....Honda riders ARE ghey.

[k2w3]

What is this thing against Honda riders? Nout wrong with sensible reliability, lad.

[MSTRS:Me]

What is this thing against Honda riders?

Who? Moi? I have nothing against Honda riders. I've even known some in the past...
No. I merely showed how ACC's methodology and use of stats can prove anything.

[Icemaestro]

They are right in saying that the cost of scans is alot higher here than in australia - That possibly could have been due to the fact there were less of them here (which has now changed), and that is probably a reasonable thing to decrease costs in (which is going to happen) however riffer is right, Ct's and MRI's are the gold standard for imaging a larg majority of pathologies, hence why when we have more of them, more of them get used!!(funny that!). Thankfully this is not going to affect the use of said machines in a hospital setting.