The Future of Interconnected Healthcare in the U.S. Will be Enabled and Constrained by Technology
When I posted the first part of this discussion earlier this week, we chatted about how advances in technology were arriving at an opportune time to dramatically impact Healthcare in these glorious (but rather cold) United States. (As an aside, it’s not too early to start fearing the winter wind that is blowing – and my Facebook friends can always find ways to squeeze humor out of anything!)
For this posting, we’re going to focus on the darker side of the subject: Why so often technology fails to deliver on its potential to improve Healthcare and its delivery. Robert Pearl who is not only a doctor, but also the CEO of The Permanente Medical Group, the largest medical group in the nation, was speaking on this a couple weeks ago and I thought you might be interested in his five reasons.
1) Technology doesn’t understand the business of Healthcare
“This really isn’t the tech company’s fault,” Dr. Pearl explains, “the business model of Healthcare is so fundamentally broken. Technology is essential, but it’s the business model that works.” The reforms – such as outcomes based compensation – currently going on in the business offer hope that healthcare will move to a more sustainable model in the near future. But the common American fee for service model will constrain this change. “It is easier to raise your volume of services, than it is to lower your costs” says Dr. Pearl.
2) Disruptive innovations start with the problem
“Too often we create technology that’s cool,” says Dr. Pearl “but it doesn’t solve a problem!” He sees technology for technology’s sake as consuming precious resources and distracting attention away from the problems society needs most to address. In his view, the Fitbit and other wearable devices are little more than solutions to the “what to get someone for Christmas” problem, not game changers on the health of the US.
3) No one is willing to pay
Often the technology that’s needed can’t get funded or becomes unaffordable (which brings us back to one of the three societal trends we covered previously on this blog.)
4) Technology companies don’t understand doctors
Dr. Pearl explains that their resistance to adopting new technology is very simple if one considers that doctors are basically hourly employees since under the common “fee for service” models of reimbursement, doctors receive more compensation for increasing the number of services they deliver. “Anything that slows them down (such as new technology) causes them to make less.”
5) Hype often outpaces reality
While there are many examples to pull from, he thought IBM’s use of Watson on Jeopardy was a great example of how the flames of hype are fanned. Alternatively, the functional use of another quasi-artificial intelligence, Apple’s Siri, was much more impactful in Dr. Pearl’s view. Here technology was changing how users interact with their devices, not turning over their thinking to the technology.
If our country’s healthcare system is going to fundamentally change to address the rising costs of service delivery and the demographic trends that are going to increase demand, it’s certain that technology must play a role. But as we can see from Dr. Pearl’s comments, it’s up to providers, payers and employers to advocate for the wise and intentional use of technology.
Since a huge number of US citizens receive their healthcare through their employer, your trusty HR Technology and Outsourcing team from Lockton will make sure we stay in this important conversation as the data and the dollars swirl all around us to ensure the needs and voice of America’s employers are heard and considered.
What do you think about Dr. Pearl’s assertions? Share below or tweet your thoughts to @HRTechKaiser.