Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE
Brad Feld responded to my blog “How Software Innovation Can Cause Creative Transformation Of The Dysfunctional
“Brad Feld”
"Brad Feld has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars.
In addition to his investing efforts, Brad is active with several non-profit organizations. He currently is chair of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and the Global EIR Coalition and is on the boards of Path Forward, the Kauffman Fellows, and Defy Ventures.
Brad is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He’s written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals.
Brad holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed 24 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 states."
Brad is an innovative thinker.
This is what he wrote;
“Outstanding blog post dad.
And I think your punch line is completely correct - the healthcare software
innovators should focus 100% of their energy on the patient and the
physician (their customer). That would quickly transform everything in the
healthcare supply chain.
Can you imagine what would happen if the government subsidized Borders
and Barnes and Noble?
Yup - pretty easy to see that they would be doing fine. Bookstores would be classified as a public good.
What nonsense.”
I think common sense, clear thinking and innovative software can solve a lot of the healthcare system’s problems. I don’t think the Senate Republicans are thinking clearly or using common sense in attempting to revise the house healthcare bill.
Healthcare policy makers are trying to reform healthcare by using a business model destined to fail.
The healthcare business model of 1945 to 1965 was a model that put patients and physicians at the center of care. It worked.
In 1965 government policy makers were trying to do a good deed. Their policies started the healthcare system on the slippery slope to destruction.
The government poured money into the healthcare system and patients and physician were no longer at the center of the healthcare system. The secondary stakeholders began to devise ways of taking a large percentage of that government money out to the healthcare system.
They learned to take money that was supposed to be paid for direct patient care out of the healthcare system. In the name of patient care they were permitted by the government to take business expenses off the top.
The relationship between patients and physicians has been destroyed in the process.
The vested interests of secondary stakeholders have taken over and direct healthcare policy. The patients and the physicians are no longer the primary stakeholders in the healthcare system.
The primary customer in the healthcare system should be the patient. Patients’ physicians’ are their primary surrogates.
Well-intended policy makers have tried to fix the system by making revisions and updates to the broken business model.
Their revisions only made the healthcare system more expensive and less effective for the care of patients.
The 2011 Obama business model is a jumble. The secondary stakeholders control the healthcare system. The secondary stakeholders destroyed the patient/physician relationship.
President Obama’s healthcare reform law has made the healthcare system worse than it was pre-Obamacare. Obamacare is a failed business model.
Obamacare does not consider a way to get back to the patient/physician relationship.
It reminds me of the Microsoft operating system. Microsoft has patched upgrades on top of the DOS operating system of the 1980s rather than revising the operating system.
Obamacare has added complexity to the system. It introduced many ideas that have turned out to be bad ideas for the culture that was in place. The execution of these ideas were worse.
One is Accountable Care Organizations. Another is pay for performance rules.
Obamacare does not deal with tort reform. It does not deal with patient responsibility for their own care and their own healthcare dollars.
Obamacare creates a healthcare system that makes consumers more dependent on the government.
Obamacare gives secondary stakeholders (government, the healthcare insurance industry and pharmaceutical companies) increased control over consumers and their freedom to make their own healthcare decisions.
The critical turn in healthcare policy thinking is essential.
The 2020 business model of Obamacare will result in an increase in the velocity of the healthcare system’s collapse.
The result will be an increased budget deficit. Healthcare spending can escalate to 100% of the GDP in less than 20 years.
*At this critical point we must turn to a sustainable state for the healthcare system.
The business model must be changed. The new business model must be unrestrained by the present business model.
This is where software innovation comes in.
Software must be developed that redirects the model to a consumer driven healthcare system.
It must be controlled by consumer choice, responsibility and actions. Consumers must also control their healthcare dollars. Legislation must be written to provide consumers with choice, responsibility, and incentives to be responsible for their care.
Consumers are the only ones that can demand this option.
Consumers must change the course of the healthcare system.
The secondary stakeholders will not give up their power easily. The release of their power will only come as a result of the Internet and innovative software development that teaches consumers how to utilize their power.
Steve Jobs did it with iTunes, iPods, iPhones and iPad. He transformed the music publishing industry through the use of iTunes.
Jeff Bezo did it with Amazon and the book publishing industry. He has extended his software model to the retailing industry. He is about to extend it to the food distribution industry.
To transform the healthcare system, medicine needs software developers and healthcare policy innovators who understand the practice of medicine.
CEO’s of large corporations and small businesses must think about the future state without government restrictions.
The 2020 medical business model in the future state must have the following components:.
- My Ideal Medical Savings Account is essential.
- The Ideal Electronic Medical Record is essential.
- Patients must be responsible for their care and healthcare dollars.
- Patient education must be an extension of their physicians’ care.
- A team approach to chronic disease management must be adopted with the patients becoming the professor of their disease.
Patients must become the team leader. Physicians must be coaches with their healthcare team as assistant coaches,
- Tort Reform must eliminate defensive medicine,
- Specialty care must be integrated with primary care.
All of these components must be attributes of a reformed healthcare system. These attributes must be executed and included in the healthcare system at the same time.
Consumers must be taught to drive the healthcare system.
Skeptics who are trying to hold on to power and protect the validity of past policies will fight hard just as the music industry and the publishing industry did.
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” is, mine and mine alone.
All Rights Reserved © 2006 – 2017 “Repairing The Healthcare System” Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE
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