Dr. P’s Blog

With yesterday’s launch of The Doctors on CBS- we have extended our reach of healthcare by converting the family room into an examination  room  the of health consumerism is clearly on the rise with a  greater push for consumers to assume more responsibility for their care. The challenge will remain, however, that consumers will also need to be educated about how to pay for it and what they can afford. Healthcare still remains one of the few subsidized markets with many options but few actual choices. Empowering the consumer is important but what is equally important is educating them on what their benefits allow and how much treatment will cost-otherwise its no better than sending a five year old into a candy store handcuffed with no money and telling them can have whatever they want.

Dr. P

The Washington Post reports today the growing business of selling prescription drug data to insurers. While this may certainly help insurance companies in terms of setting new plans based on cost there still remains a fundamental challenge to the economics of the solution. Who is helping the employers? The only means for cost and quality to  improve is to empower the purchasers FIRST with the metrics necessary to make the right decisions . Employers together must come together to understand the importance of vendor-independent-reporting and the need to provide better transparency first to themselves and their employees.

Dr. P

The two parties have approached healthcare reform from opposite sides of the field to try and attack an age –old beast- rising cost. In one word, the Obama campaign proposes a potential mandate to insure those who don’t’ have health insurance while the McCain camp proposes a market-driven approach to drive more competition across state lines for consumers to choose. Either way the employer, who still holds the purse strings, will pay a price-how much who knows. It is unlikely that employers will ever get out of the business of providing benefits. Its far too important to corporate competitiveness especially against the productivity of foreign manufacturers and suppliers. Either way it will be critical for there to be a far deeper understanding of the consumption demographics of people consuming care if we are to have any impact in trying to figure out how we are going to pay for it and how much we should pay. With gas at 5$, a global food shortage, the rubber band is being stretched to a point of no return. The fix to healthcare system cannot be a shot gun approach-the stakes are far too high.

More to come… 

Dr. P