Sharing what I have learned from what I have read: A blog by Joe Abittan
In his book The Opioid Crisis Wake-Up Call, Dave Chase quotes Dan Munro by writing, "The [healthcare] system was never broken, it was designed this way." I'm a fan of Debbie Millman's podcast, Design Matters. When we are making something that other people will use and engage with, it is important to think about … Continue reading Design Matters – Healthcare Edition
Medicaid simply doesn't pay enough for many medical providers to make a profit. The reimbursement rates often cover only fixed costs, and don't really cover the full operating costs of a service. Medicare pays slightly better, usually covering operating costs and sometimes providing just enough for a small profit. Private insurance, however, pays a lot … Continue reading Healthcare Profit and Subsidization
A common complaint about healthcare in the United States is that it has traditionally operated on a fee for service (FFS) based model. It is a natural and easy to understand system, and generally the type of system that both patients and providers prefer. The idea is that you pay for the services you receive … Continue reading Value in Healthcare
How can we really make change to the United States healthcare system? Dave Chase, in his book The Opioid Crisis Wake-Up Call argues that changes to the system need to come from private businesses, because private businesses are responsible for the health insurance coverage for over 50% of American's. If business don't take action and … Continue reading Status Quo in Healthcare
Dave Chase makes an argument in his book The Opioid Crisis Wake-Up Call that healthcare has a substantial supply side drive, not just a demand side drive. This argument doesn't align with standard pictures of healthcare, the idea that people seek care when they are sick, and don't use care when they are well. Its … Continue reading Health Care Supply
Yesterday I wrote a little bit about the fiduciary healthcare responsibilities that employers hold given that companies invest our healthcare dollars in plans and structures that can be quite costly. In his book The Opioid Crisis Wake-Up Call, Dave Chase writes, "Given the wide cost differentials, CFOs and CEOs are failing in their fiduciary responsibility … Continue reading More on Fiduciary Healthcare Responsibilities
For many Americans, their job provides them with some type of retirement savings account. Historic legal action, laws, and regulations require that companies who offer retirement savings vehicles responsibly manage the money they invest on behalf of their employees. The investment options that employers chose must perform at a reasonable level. A company can't push … Continue reading Fiduciary Healthcare Responsibility
When you learn something new, when you have a new insight into the world, when you figure out how to do something that you couldn't do before, do you share that insight or do you try to keep it to yourself? If you are a big business, you probably try to keep that to yourself. … Continue reading Innovation Openness
"A self-insured health plan," writes Dave Chase in The Opioid Crisis Wake-Up Call, "is established when an employer sets aside some of its funds to pay for employees' medical expenses. Employees then contribute to the plan rather than pay traditional premiums." In the United States, it is not uncommon for large employers to chose … Continue reading Self-Insured Health Plans
Healthcare spending has been increasing, but it is easy to see that we have a finite set of healthcare resources available to everyone. We only have so many hospitals, there are only so many doctors available, and our healthcare plans are all tied together so if one person uses a high amount of healthcare, everyone … Continue reading Misdiagnosis