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Better Health Covers HIMSS 2010: Day 2

Our first day of social media coverage at HIMSS was a lot of fun. We had hundreds of people join in our UStream interviews and I spoke at the “Meet The Bloggers” panel with some very cool peers. Today we’ll be conducting more interviews at the Better Health media center, located in the lobby of Building B, just behind the information desk. I hope you’ll join us for live coverage. Simply follow along by clicking here. Here’s who Dr. Mike Sevilla, Dr. Nick Genes, and I will be interviewing:

himssagendaday2

Pharmacists Face Consumer Rage Over Insurance Denials

I was at the pharmacy today picking up some goods.  We indicated to the pharmacy tech our cash paying status.  The nice lady behind the counter explained that the drug company had a discount plan for cash paying customers that do not submit a claim to their insurance company.  We had to promise not to submit the claim and not to sell the medication on the internet for which we obliged.  Then we had a seat and waited.

In the next 30 minutes I had the opportunity to listen to several customers blow up in a fit of rage about why their insurance company wasn’t covering this or that.  Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at A Happy Hospitalist*

What Do Americans Want From Their Healthcare System?


I read a good post from NYT about Health Care Reform and ‘American Values’ and it got me a thinkin’…just what are American Values when it comes to health care? Usually I get a little anxious when I see “American Values” in a sentence, because what usually follows is something about rugged individuality, pulling oneself up by bootstraps, getting the damn government out of our lives and those damn immigrants and welfare mothers who won’t work and want to live off others.

But I have listened to about ten thousand patients over the past 25 years, and I have a good idea of what these Americans want for health care. They are the silent majority…the people who work, study, raise their kids and seldom call into a radio talk show. They don’t have time to go to town hall meetings and shout slogans.

They range from age 17 to 101 and most of them are middle class. They come in all races…Asian, Black, White, Pacific Islander and mixes of all.

Some are wealthy enough to have multiple homes and private planes.
Some are uninsured and watch their health care spending very closely. Most were thrilled to get Medicare and I’ve never heard a complaint from a Medicare patient.

Here is my list of what these Americans think about Health Care:

  • They do agree that everyone should be covered for basic health care and would pay higher taxes if they could believe that there would not be fraud and waste. (The recent banking meltdown has destroyed all confidence that government can regulate or be independent from special interests)
  • They want choice of physicians and hospitals
  • They are sick of insurance companies and all feel like they have been screwed in one way or another. They are shocked at how little insurance companies pay toward the doctor visit and the way those fees are discounted.
  • They are technocentric and want tests, imaging, referrals and think “more is better” when it comes to health care. They think tests are cures. Because of the perverse incentives, the “more is better” philosophy benefits doctors and hospitals, but not necessarily patients.
  • They fear losing insurance if they have it.
  • They are confused about the current reform debate and mostly fear losing whatever coverage they now have, because they know how impossible it is to get by without any coverage at all.

There are no such thing as “American Values” because we are a diverse group of people. But we all have certain things in common. We want to be healthy. We don’t want to be screwed by anyone (big business or the government).

We want to be able to manage our own health care but we don’t want to have to decide between numerous health plans every year with pages of information that cannot be understood. We are tired of not knowing where all the $trillions really are being spent.

We want to know the price of a service up front, and we want a trusted physician to help us decide if that is how our money should be spent. We want smart, committed physicians to know us, and not hurt us.

Sounds American to me.

*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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