Implications of Consumer-Driven Healthcare

Navicure is sponsoring a complimentary webinar about consumer-driven healthcare. I'll post a link of the archived webinar when it becomes available. In the meanwhile, I'd like us to consider how consumer-driven healthcare will change the way providers do business.


The upcoming webinar will address these points:

    * The importance of quality, pricing and patient satisfaction as it relates to consumer-driven healthcare.
    * How consumer-driven healthcare impacts your bottom line.
    * Strategies for providers to increase patient collections at the point of service.

As healthcare undergoes reform on this country, will consumers become more empowered so they can make informed medical decisions? Will health insurance plans converge and look very similar, or will we still live in a world filled with HMOs, PPOs, and other types of managed care plans. What will happen to CDHPs or consumer-directed health plans and health savings accounts or HSAs? Will we see greater momentum with health insurance exchanges? The health insurance marketplace is definitely changing and I'm curious to see how this industry evolves as reform takes place in this country. The public option will create competition, so how will private insurers react?

Future of CDHP

I was having a discussion the other day about the future of consumer-directed (or driven) health plans (CDHP). We live in a world where managed care dominates the healthcare industry. Under this new administration, many things in the healthcare system will change. Some are talking about universal health coverage. Will that be like the VA (Veterans Affairs) system? Will be turn into Canada? No one seems to know the answers to these questions, but one thing is clear: we need to reduce healthcare costs and also improve disease management.

I personally believe that technology will help patients with disease self-management. If we look at some of the conditions that burden the healthcare system, they would include things such as: diabetes, heart disease, heart failure, COPD, asthma, and many others. Patients who have any of these conditions must be very active in caring for their conditions. They must adhere to their medication regimen. They must follow-up appropriately with their healthcare providers. The use of modern technology is improving the care of some of these conditions. Glucose monitors and insulin pumps are becoming more sophisticated. Cardiac devices are saving lives at home. Home monitoring devices are improving care for millions of patients. Patients are receiving education through the Internet (although they're also getting misinformation).

Well, I've obviously gone on a tangent, but I will return to this topic of CDHP in a later post.