I have written the past about the slow adoption rate for innovative technology and solutions in the healthcare payer space. Not much has changed in the way healthcare payers interact with healthcare providers. This will change and it must change. We are starting to see some signs of the “paralysis by analysis” walls are starting to crumble in healthcare. It is an evolutionary process and yet outside the healthcare payer space we see a technology revolution occurring.
For example, today I read in the Wall Street Journal that Amazon announced E-book sales outpaced hardcover sales. A few years ago no one thought it possible and yet it just happened. The ease and convenience of reading a book just got easier. Oh I forgot to mention that Amazon reduced their rate of the Kindle device and of course e-books are cheaper. We don’t see a reduction in healthcare charges whenever new technology is applied. In fact, prices traditionally go up.
If healthcare payers and providers are going to remain an integral part of the future landscape of healthcare delivery they must adopt technology that will continually improve outcomes while reducing the charges for services. Today the providers are still asking for things to be faxed, forms filled out on paper and photocopied, doctors who still handwrite prescriptions that nobody can read.
iphone, ipad, Kindle, Fax…(oops). So long fax. The “paralysis from analysis” wall is about to tumble.