Nonprofit Organization "Costs of Care" Is Seeking Real Stories from the Frontlines of American Medicine about Healthcare Affordability
Boston, MA (PRWEB) April 09, 2015 -- Costs of Care (http://www.CostsOfCare.org) has launched a new essay contest, inviting patients, clinicians, and students of the health professions to share real stories of successes and failures in healthcare affordability. In years past, stories collected in the Costs of Care Essay Contest have been featured in almost every major media outlet. In 2015, one year into implementation of Obamacare, Costs of Care believes sharing these stories is more important than ever.
The spiraling costs of healthcare have become a contentious societal focal point without an obvious solution. Traditionally, health care providers have been reluctant to discuss their own role in healthcare spending. However according to Neel Shah, M.D., Executive Director at Costs of Care, “Ultimately, no amount of regulating, reorganizing, or otherwise reforming the healthcare system will successfully contain costs unless healthcare providers are invested in fixing the problem.”
According to Jordan Harmon, Director of Advocacy Initiatives at Costs of Care, "The Essay Contest is an opportunity rarely afforded to patients and clinicians to detail the difficulty of providing affordable care. The essay submissions are a unique way to tell the story that is playing out in thousands of care settings across the country and shine a light on the need for basic tools to reduce the costs of care."
$4000 in prizes will be awarded to winning entries, with the help of three judges:
• Sandra Hernandez, CEO, California Healthcare Foundation
• Leah Binder, CEO of the Leapfrog Group
• Mark McClellan, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institute
Preference will be given to stories that best demonstrate the importance of cost-awareness in medicine. Examples may include a time a patient tried to find out what a test or treatment would cost but was unable to do so, a time that caring for a patient generated an unexpectedly high medical bill, or a time a patient and care provider figured out a way to save money while still delivering high-value care.
Anyone looking to learn more about the successful entries from last year’s contest can find our more at http://www.costsofcare.org/essay.
All submissions will be due on May 31st, 2015 to contest(AT)costsofcare.org. All qualifying submissions will be published biweekly at http://www.costsofcare.org during the 2015 calendar year, and will be made available to the media.
The contest is sponsored in part through the generosity of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Neel Shah, Costs of Care, http://www.CostsOfCare.org, +1 (617) 841-8581, [email protected]
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