August 2nd, 2010 by Davis Liu, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
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The Wall Street Journal reported that overall medical use fell as patients had fewer doctor office visits, lab testing, and maintenance medications possibly due to the recession or as a result of consumer-driven healthcare in the way of higher deductibles and copays. This is very worrisome.
Certainly patients should have some financial responsibility for their care, but skimping on care will only result in Americans not becoming healthier, but sicker. Though the article cited some examples of patients saving money by not seeing their allergist for a refill of medication and simply calling for one and getting an athletic physical at a local urgent care clinic for $40 rather than $90 at the doctor’s office, these tiny behavior changes aren’t going to bend the cost curve in medical care. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*
July 23rd, 2010 by Davis Liu, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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First, I am a big admirer of Apple CEO Steve Jobs for his thoughtful 2005 Stanford commencement speech, his clarity of vision, and his superb skills as a leader. Fortune magazine named him CEO of the decade after turning around the company he founded from near bankruptcy in the late 1990s to becoming the most valued company today. Though I have great respect for him, I haven’t bought an Apple product, ever, until this year.
So I watched with great interest his press conference regarding Antennagate which has consumed technology news with regards to the design of the new iPhone 4 and its new antenna design. Apparently this makes the smartphone vulnerable to dropping phone calls when held a certain way, known as the death grip. If one simply avoided holding the phone that one explicit way, the phone otherwise worked fine. As a result, 22 days after the latest iPhone was available to the public, Jobs and Apple were instead addressing an issue which dwarfed their latest product launch.
Doctors and patients can learn plenty by watching Jobs’ approach to the problem, because the situation he and his team were tackling is similar to what a doctor addresses daily in the office. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*
April 19th, 2010 by Davis Liu, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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In a recent Time magazine article, the author suggests, as many others have done in the past, that forcing patients to be more like customers and comparison shop will drive healthcare costs down. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The theory of consumer-driven healthcare goes like this: If there was more information about the costs of doctors, hospitals, imaging tests, and procedures, people would hunt around to find the best deal, stimulate competition, and drive pricing downward. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*
