We welcome Dr. Robert Pearl, the author of Mistreated: Why We Think We're Getting Good Healthcare – and Why We're Usually Wrong back to our Sunday morning conversation. Dr. Pearl, former CEO of the Permanente Medical Group, the nation's largest medical group, answers questions that concern us all – Why are prescription drugs so expensive?
Recently my allergy doctor suggested a vapor treatment for my pollen-driven tightened chest. I said okay. It never occurred to me to ask how much does the treatment cost because I won't get a bill. The charge will merely be an object of curiosity when the insurance company sends me an explanation of benefits they paid. If the insurer is required to pay – no questions asked – for tests and treatments, our profit-making health care eco-system is going to prescribe more at a higher cost each. That leads directly to rising insurance premiums. If I had to pay the bill for that treatment, I would have asked more questions about the cost and efficacy.
If health management is the focus of our modern healthcare system, doesn't it make sense for the doctor to encourage my active and engaged life-style – maintaining my weight, blood pressure, blood sugar – rather than condescendingly telling me I am in denial?
The mainstream media is still reporting the Affordable Health Care (ACA) Exchange Website is not working well. A website is like the shiny bright paint job on a new car on the showroom floor. The paint attracts the buyer’s attention but it doesn’t drive the car. OMG, beyond the shiny green paint – there isn’t even a complete design of the car
There is a troubling juxtaposition between the President pictured in the Situation Room during the Bin Laden raid and the absence of any evidence the President and his health care policy and technology team ever conducted an ACA milestone review. In the former, the President had no control over the roll-out and the latter he had absolute control of the roll-out
The purpose of the ACA Exchange is simple. Help Americans shop for health insurance. But spending $450 million dollars on an e-commerce application.reaches the level of criminality when the website does not even work! Out of ACA debacle must come a 21st century approach to government technology acquisition.
The computer in the exam room can facilitate scientific research that will help people live better, fuller, longer lives! That is, unless the science is co-opted by the government through the Institute for Patient-Centric Outcomes and the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) in 2015.