A New Health Care Mantra
Depending upon your vantage point, the topic of health care can be a complex issue, or a question of simple and immediate need. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of separate entities participating in the American health care discourse, all jostling to place their interests as paramount, most representatives of industry.
While it is easy to argue that a certain cynicism permeates the dialogue, I think it’s more important to recognize that the discussion simply tends to be dominated by the loudest voices. Proponents of economics-driven health care initiatives should not be faulted for the direction the health care paradigm has followed in the last couple of decades; I argue that criticism should be reserved for those that do the listening and ultimately, decide policy.
What I’m saying is this: what gets lost in the maelstrom of new ideas, business models, partnerships and technology is the voice of the patient. As a patient, I don’t care about the health of industry as it pertains to the American economic model; that topic is wholly irrelevant to a dying, injured, or ailing person. I also understand that health care on a comprehensive level can not be delivered without industry as a partner. So where does the middle ground lie? Why is it important to have a middle ground?
The health care industry as it exists now is untenable. With “health care costs rising at five times the rate of inflation” the industry is in the midst of strangling the golden goose, wringing every last cent from the patient and government, and forgetting that without patient buy-in, there is no product to sell. “But people will always pay for health care,” you might argue. Not if the patient ceases to be the focal point. And that is rapidly becoming the case, with some “47 million Americans [living] without health insurance,” patients are voluntarily and involuntarily participating in mass exodus as a response to a broken system
The point is, the discourse deserves a new mantra, something to guide innovation and provide a framework for the sustainability of health care that currently exists in name only. Perhaps “Better outcomes, healthier patients” could be the battle cry for industry, guiding resources towards that bottom line rather than a simple revenue goal that sustains a short-term business model and helps very few. In adopting a patient-centric focus, industry innovators and decision makers alike may discover an opportunity to reassert and galvanize their relationship with the consumer, the patient, and discard the old health care matrix that has only served to alienate, anger, and most importantly, under-deliver.
Tags: better patient outcomes, collaboration, health 2.0, health care, health care outcomes, industry, mantra, patient care, policy
