Choices in Healthcare Isn’t the Problem

It’s probably safe to say that very few people across the United States believe healthcare is in a good place and doesn’t need fixing.

From cable news pundits to your hairdresser to Congress, plenty of people are talking about healthcare (and have for decades), and about how something needs to change. It’s true; while premiums continue to rise and benefits continue to fall, plenty of people are paying too much, and more than 28 million Americans are on the outside looking in, with no health insurance at all.

There’s been a fair amount of buzz surrounding the team-up of billionaire Warren Buffett, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon to form a not-for-profit company aimed at reducing costs to them and their U.S. employees.

“Our group does not come to this problem with answers,” Buffett is quoted as saying. “But we also do not accept [ballooning healthcare costs] as inevitable.”

They’re seeking to pool their resources, braintrust and more to force innovation in healthcare. But even before the new effort has rolled out anything new for their employees, it’s facing skepticism.

CVS Health Chairman David Dorman—whose company recently bought Aetna—told CNBC that while “almost 60 percent of the cost [of healthcare] is in… doctors and hospitals,” changing healthcare will be “very difficult.”

The reason?

Dorman says a big part of high costs come from the employees’ choices, as well as the choices of their doctors. Meaning, in his opinion, costs will continue to be high as long as consumers and professionals have a choice.

That skepticism makes sense, given our current landscape. But it’s misplaced.

In the Health Rosetta paradigm, choice isn’t a hindrance to changing healthcare; it’s a critical component. One of the key pieces of our approach at Southlake-based Captiva Benefit Solutions is Concierge-Style Customer Service.

In short, it’s reducing costs by leaning on someone to cut through the complexities, sales pitches and business-as-usual to find options that make the most sense financially, and health-wise.

In his book, The CEO’s Guide to Restoring the American Dream, Dave Chase describes concierge service as “the conductor that harmonizes much of this discord and fragmentation [in healthcare], providing one point of interaction and distilling complex information down to actionable guidance.”

It’s not that employees are drawn to the highest-cost alternatives in their healthcare; it’s that we’re dealing with a system that is built on profits and steering people towards higher-cost treatments.

Add into that an environment of mergers or partnerships among medical providers, which allows “near-monopolies in some markets… driving up prices,” reports Julie Appleby of Kaiser Health News.

The problem is in the administration. The solution is having professionals in your camp who can steer you and your employees toward the best outcomes—medically and financially.

You needn’t work for a trio of billionaires to have hope for a reformed healthcare system. Reform is already here. Contact Captiva Benefit Solutions to learn how we’re getting around the demands of the out-of-control doctors, hospitals and pharmaceuticals.

Choice isn’t the problem; the choices traditional healthcare presents us with is the problem.

The article Choices in Healthcare Isn’t the Problem was originally seen on: Donnie Marcontell