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My Healthcare Wish List
By John Crowley
February 21, 2010 at 11:06 pm
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I am not a medical professional or an expert in healthcare reform. But I am a parent in a family that has been a heavy user of the current healthcare system.
From the things I've observed and read, I've created a list of the things that I think could make a significant difference in the way healthcare is both provided and consumed in America.
1. Eliminate the employer's role in the healthcare system. The current system creates too much separation between healthcare decisions made by the consumer (with his/her doctor) and the costs associated with those decisions. Including the employer/employee/compensation dynamic into the equation adds an additional layer of confusion and complexity.
2. Require (as California has done) all healthcare providers to publish a price list for services provided. Competition improves quality and lowers price. It's time healthcare providers felt a little competition by virtue of consumers finally being able to shop around.
3. Separate catastrophic healthcare insurance coverage from health maintenance coverage. Insurance in every other part of our lives is for protection against catastrophic occurrences. The idea that our health insurance should cover our day-to-day health expenses is crazy. If someone chooses to pay for some kind of health maintenance plan it should be a completely separate plan/product/purchase decision.
4. Medical liability limits and reforms. Lawyers have turned going to the doctor into the malpractice lottery. Certainly, doctors who make egregious errors must be held accountable. But one of the drivers of more expensive healthcare is outrageous malpractice insurance rates.
5. Remove the restriction on interstate competition among health insurers. Another ridiculous, anti-competitive, anti-free-market restriction that leads to higher costs and fewer choices for consumers.
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Anonymous April 19 at 4:53 pm0 LikesThere is a company called HealthString that also helps maintain personal health records online. They have their registered nurse coaches assist people in requesting medical records from doctors, dentists, hospitals, etc. and even help determine what is relevant to keep in the PHR. Coaches also help people understand what is in their records, how to change information it if there is an error (like never filled prescriptions) and how to connect their care community so that helpful information is shared and available when needed. This too saves time, redundancy of tests, and promotes informed health decisions.
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Zilla12 April 19 at 4:35 pm1 LikeApplause. Applause. And how about for #6 — taking a lesson from car insurance…give $$$ rebates back to purchasers for good health behaviors, for example: no ER visits for mundane problems, maintaining a healthy weight for one's age/gender, having preventive screenings like cholesterol and blood pressure numbers done annually, and not missing too many work days for illness. USAA does this and shares a "dividend" with its auto insurers so that we feel that our efforts are noticed and worth something!
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John CrowleyCA April 20 at 10:46 am0 LikesFantastic idea. Let's start rewarding the behaviors that can help drive down the cost of healthcare.
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thegreathambino February 2, 2011 at 10:45 am1 LikeIncredible. I wish I would have said this, exactly. It would take a revolution, I'm sure, to get some of these things in place. But it's astounding to compare some of the business models and ecosystems of healthcare to other consumer services. The practices of the healthcare industry make no sense when applied elsewhere. I'll add one of my small wishes to this list: 6. Please hasten the arrival of unified, digital medical records. These should be owned by me, not a hospital or doctor's office. I should be responsible for their protection and consequently their distribution. I should walk home with them, or have them uploaded at the end of a visit to my own library. I should not have to re-enter my address 6 times, my name 8, my kids 4, my job twice, and sign 17 times, just to have my throat checked.
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John CrowleyCA February 2, 2011 at 12:15 pm1 Like
You are exactly right about the health records. I think that will actually happen. Not tomorrow for sure. But it is coming.
And I wholeheartedly agree about the re-entering info every time you see a doctor. That has to change.
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Zilla12 April 20 at 12:11 pm0 LikesThe Feds are now enforcing the HIPAA regulations governing hospitals and care providers to provide medical records upon request by patients. In this recent case, a $4.3 million dollar fine was levied against a health center in Maryland that failed to provide medical records to 41 patients. To learn more, check out this article:
http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2011/2/23... -
thegreathambino March 11 at 5:44 pm0 LikesAnother small advancement in this arena. Great to see progress: http://www.healthexchange.com/news-articles/5...
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BandonBob February 25 at 5:33 pm1 LikeI agree with all the earlier comments bit I had to bring up something about medical records. I enter all the data about my health on Heart360 run by the American Heat Association. When I get to my doctor's office they download it directly into their records. They started this system about a year and a half ago and it works well. It is worth checking to see if your doctor is interested. If they don't want to do it themselves from the internet you can download to a flash drive and take it in with you when you visit a doctor. That's what I do when I see a new doctor and it saves hours of writing at their office.
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thegreathambino February 28 at 9:53 am0 Likes
This is really cool. I've been waiting for this logjam to break, and this is a great sign. I'm going to look into it further. It looks like it's using Microsoft's tech to support it: http://www.healthexchange.com/news-articles/4...
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John CrowleyCA March 2, 2010 at 5:48 pm1 LikeEdited February 18 at 5:27 pm by John CrowleyCA
I've decided I need to add a #5.
5. Remove the restriction on interstate competition among health insurers. Another ridiculous, anti-competitive, anti-free-market restriction that leads to higher costs and fewer choices for consumers.
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