We Need to Reform More Than Just Healthcare Reimbursement

Healthcare for all. This is what the debate in Washington and in the media is supposedly all about. But what we’re reading about and talking about is not so much about every American’s right to quality healthcare. It’s about the right to have health insurance.

Our national dialogue is not about improving the doctor-patient relationship, or about solutions to the looming physician shortage. It’s not about disparities in quality of healthcare between the rich and the poor, or the skyrocketing cost of drugs.

It’s about health insurance, and who’s going to pay it and how.

The reimbursement issue is fundamentally important to the healthcare system, and we are in the middle of an important conversation about that now. But payment for services is just one issue in a system that has many problems to sort out.

The quality and availability of care is equally important, but it has only been getting a fraction of the news coverage that policy battles about reimbursement have been getting.

To solve the larger problems with the healthcare system, we need to begin by asking why so many patients feel left out of the process, and why so many feel that their freedom to choose a provider is being limited.

We need to take a closer look at the electronic medical records that the majority of providers are using now, and ask why the patient is not the one in complete control of these records.

We need to look at how many independent physician practices have been closing their doors over the past decade, and take steps to ensure their survival.

When Washington finally agrees on healthcare reforms, they will only have settled the country’s policies on reimbursement for healthcare services rendered. The political battles will have only done so much to improve the country’s overall quality of care. It won’t be enough.

Fortunately, there are things that technology — or, more specifically, technology working together with people — that public policies still struggle to do.

Telemedicine and other innovations can extend the reach of doctors, so that they can offer care to a larger number of patients. Other technologies will help patients better track and manage their own health when they are outside of the care setting. Still other technologies will put valuable information into the hands of doctors and patients, so that every treatment decision can be better-informed.

Technology can also preserve choice for the consumer. Many patients do not want to be randomly assigned a physician, which often happens in the managed care system. Many want to form a relationship with one doctor of their choosing, and then stay with that doctor long-term.

Independent physicians, who are in a better position to form these lasting relationships with patients, should be using the kinds of management systems that will help them stay in business, so that patients will continue to have this choice.

Though software-based systems have failed these independent practices, there are management systems that combine software with human expertise.

These hands-on systems will help the independent doctor thrive, preserve choice for patients and improve the quality of care for our country. The reimbursement issue is just the first step toward a better healthcare system. We must go a lot further, and put the physician and the patient at the core of healthcare.

Read more stories by Dr. Adam Tabriz here.

Partner with eHealth Solutions to create a new system of practice management dedicated to the survival and success of the independent physician. Find out more here and here.