“Our kids will laugh at us for how we used to run healthcare.”
So said Brett Hickman, partner and U.S. deals leader in the health industries division of PricewaterhouseCoopers, during a session at Becker’s Hospital Review 5th Annual Meeting, May 15 in Chicago. Moderated by Charles Lauer, author, consultant and former publisher of Modern Healthcare, Mr. Hickman joined panelists Andrew Hayek, president and CEO of Surgical Care Affiliates in Deerfield, Ill.; Javon Bea, president and CEO Mercy Health System in Janesville, Wisc.; and David Nash, MD, founding dean of the Jefferson School of Population Health in Philadelphia, in discussing how it probably won’t even take a full generation of time passing for the current model of healthcare delivery to become outdated and unfeasible.
What’s keeping healthcare back, agreed the panelists, was the inability of smart, educated healthcare leaders to see that healthcare has to become more consumer-centric. “I was meeting with a group of larger employers and one said, ‘Healthcare is filled with the most educated but stupidest people in the world,’” said Mr. Bea. “They have MDs, MBAs and MHAs and they’re not thinking about what consumers want.”
A stronger focus on maintaining patient and population health is a fundamental part of federal healthcare reform efforts. To maintain health and wellness, hospitals and health systems need to step outside the silo of inpatient care and begin to engage with some of the main determinants of a patient’s or population health. “So much of healthcare outcomes have to do with diet and lifestyle,” said Mr. Hayek. “There’s so much opportunity here, but it requires significant action.”
However, the “pain level” might not be high enough yet to inspire real change in the industry. Because so many hospitals and health systems are still able to operate in the black and find success under the traditional delivery model, there isn’t enough incentive yet to change.
This inaction from traditional healthcare players is creating room for new entrants to shake up the market. “I am seeing people fed up with the inefficacies and lack of collaboration in healthcare, and looking for unique ways to solve these equations,” said Mr. Hickman, “but I fear healthcare is too late.” He pointed to companies like Walmart and mobile device vendors that are poised to become major disruptors in the industry for their low-cost, consumer-focused approach to healthcare. By being the ones to innovate and take risks, they’ll position themselves to be the ones that profit, he said.
Which is how Dr. Nash, a population health expert, defined his field: “Population health might be construed as whom you’re bearing economic risk for,” he said. It’s a risk many organizations are not yet ready to take, but one that someone will.
“Will we decide to do it, or will the new entrants figure it out?” said Mr. Hickman. “That’s the question.”
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