Fear doesn't seem to be much of an obstacle for Jonathan Bush, the cofounder and CEO of EHR vendor athenahealth, whose relaxation hobbies include flying planes and sailing in notoriously difficult waters. But, Mr. Bush does fear for the future of healthcare innovation, a sentiment he outlined in a LinkedIn Pulse post.
A leader in healthcare innovation, Mr. Bush is concerned that the current healthcare environment is not conducive to continued progress, for which he faults the Affordable Care Act.
In a video accompanying his post, Mr. Bush said the ACA has worked as a welfare program in which everybody feels they have access to something. But as a cost management or efficiency program, he says it hasn't been so successful.
"It hasn't crushed the opportunity for cost management and innovation in healthcare. It just made it a little more taxing," Mr. Bush said.
This environment, he said, is dissuading innovators from entering the playing field.
"My biggest fear is that we won't successfully attract those new economy, engineers, entrepreneurs, that the weight of the regulatory burden, the government involvement, of the huge established health systems [are] making it harder for entrepreneurs to get in and get playing," he said.
However, he wrote his greatest hope runs parallel to his greatest fear, and that while these entrepreneurs may face these regulatory burdens, they still have the opportunity — and are grasping the opportunity — to bring cost management and innovation to healthcare.
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