It's been three years since I've gotten back into health care. Our product improves patient outcomes and reduces medical costs. What we have learned is the vast majority of health care providers (including our own IHC) care more about efficiency of delivery then effectiveness of that delivery.
Sad but true.
So more patients then ever are being over treated, with unnecessary office visits and tests but much more quickly. And lately it seems that the answer to any problem has one of three choices by the physician:
1) Get this test
2) Take this narcotic prescription
3) Take this anti-depressive drug
Next patient please.
PPACA (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or Obama care if you must) seeks to address this by insisting that providers be held responsible after the patient leaves their care and incentives for better outcomes (e.g. doing things that work as opposed to those that are reimbursed).
I am seeing many forward thinking providers and insurance companies who "get it", but we've got a long ways to go. Healthcare should not be about maximizing revenue per patient at the lowest cost.
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