Something has been happening with physician medical visits. Maybe I’m just noticing it because my doctor quit and I had to find a new one, which put me on a treadmill of repeat appointments—because, as my new physician told me, she was out of time for our visit. But here’s the rub: Apart from seasonal […]
Can Consumers Help Reduce Rising Costs of Medical Technology?
In years to come, the current health care financial scene may seem like the “good old days” of health care for middle class Americans. Despite escalating consumer costs, proposed cuts in coverage, and an ever-rising cost of care, most Americans can still access health care services. They believe health care will be there for them, […]
Can Consumers Get Essential Information to Make Good Health Care Decisions?
In the rancorous public debate about how to provide health care to Americans—and especially to vulnerable people with higher risks, lower income, or both—there is a common explanation for rising costs: it’s the patients’ fault. According to this argument, we need to stop the “overuse” of health care services by consumers that are causing our […]
Health Care Providers Need Performance Data Audits to Market Trust
Health care systems once thought it was crude and undignified to use marketing to attract patients. No more. Now they use qualitative anecdotes to promote status at a time when data is king and consumers view comparative quality data on the Internet. Why not use quantitative evidence? Because their data doesn’t promote their cause—and even […]
Can Value-Based Health Care Help Consumers Choose Doctors? 
12 Questions to Ask
Do consumers and other health care purchasers have the ability to choose providers based on quality and cost? That’s the assumption beneath attempts by Medicare and health plans to reimburse providers based on their ability to deliver better quality while constraining costs. Value-Based Health Care also includes programs by commercial insurance to offer “narrow” provider […]
Why MACRA MIPS Cost Episodes Make Good Products for Health Care Consumers
Here’s a radical idea: What if providers re-envisioned MIPS as a patient marketing initiative, not a regulatory response? Yes, I’m serious. From the beginning of PQRS and Meaningful Use to MACRA, health systems considered these efforts to be merely “compliance” with regulations and not market initiatives. But this view is shortsighted. As outlined in MACRA […]
Do Centers of Excellence Lose Under New MACRA MIPS Episodic Cost Measures?
Health systems’ Centers of Excellence that attract patients through clinical prowess may be heading for an upset. Under the MACRA MIPS program now entering its first year, physicians will be scored for cost performance in some of the same clinical areas that they have promoted to distinguish their care—and compared against their peers. Since Centers […]
Why Bundled Payments Are a Win-Win for Specialists and Health Care Consumers
Bundled payments, a health care payment innovation that has been widely praised for controlling costs, recently got a bad rap. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price has delayed implementation of the final Medicare rule for several bundled payment programs that were set to start this year. He has criticized the bundled payments initiative […]
Health Care Price Transparency for Consumers Starts with Provider Action
“Consumer choice” is at the heart of the national health care debate. This presumes access to accurate information about costs. While consumers woke up to health care costs a few years ago as their share began to rise, they lack the necessary facts to make intelligent decisions about the quantity and quality of what they are […]
Fast Forward: Why Patients Should Own Their Medical Records
Up to now, who owns patient medical records hasn’t been a big issue. In fact, the “who owns” question has been largely confined to provider purchasing discussions regarding health care data analytics or other sharing of patient records, when providers want to assert their ownership of the data. Patients have had no voice in this […]