In an excellent article at HealthLeaders, Brian Klepper believes that enough is enough and that transparency gleaned from large data sets is the key to solving the health care crisis. I think he’s mostly right, but of course what he doesn’t realize is the potential for delay caused by the ingenuity of the arguments that providers will use to show that “my patients are sicker.”
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Peter. What is your idea to control costs?
Nice article, good analysis and insight into one part of the solution. However, until we get rid of how political power is brokered and get a more, we’re all in it together system, I think crisis is the ultimate solution. I think that will come when providers have wrung as much money from the system as they can and revenues start to drop. Right now they have no incentive, or at least no mindset, to change. That’s why I think the Mass. plan is going to fail. It is an attempt by providers, through governement, to force the growing uninsured sector to pay up. That would be fine, except I have not seen any proposal from the providers as to how they are going to help control costs.
This is really only part of the solution. Health care is extremely local in its market. Measuring outcomes and resource usage of doctors and hospitals is one part of the solution but you need to understand the local market and dynamics and have a strategy for getting provider buy in. I just don’t believe that people are going to respond just by having the information because ultimately with health care most people trust their family doctors or whoever their friends and family has recommended. Somehow we need to redesign the incentives and P4P may be part of that although not the miracle worker that some think. Ultimately partially the large employer groups, large health plans, and state and local governmental bodies have the potential ability, resources and information to sift through and direct care based on the hugely complex question of who is providing the best quality most efficient care for a given condition. Where most health plans and employer groups are now is almost like the dark ages though. This is making the assumption of federal govt paralysis and tail chasing thats going on now.