Mr Jonathan Sternberg of Medix looks at how best to increase the efficiency and sustainability of the healthcare landscape.
The relationship between the insurance companies (payers), the medical institutes and practitioners (providers) and the patients, is the one that is often marred by competing, if not conflicting interests.
The payers often feel that they are being over-charged and mischarged and generally being taken advantage of. The medical cost inflation has made funding unsustainable. The providers feel that they are spending too much time justifying their decisions and are over-worked, treating patients for ailments that could have been avoided. The patients feel that they are simply not getting the care they deserve and are at a loss with the abundance of information and complex decisions they need to make.
Taking a different approach
While these feelings are all justified, this complex situation can be improved by implementing various measures and taking a different approach to healthcare.
Currently the healthcare industry still classifies patients according to their illness and seeks to apply a generic medical solution to each of them, but with advances in both medicine as well as digital tools, it is time to provide a more seamless and personalised medical journey.
Here are a few of the many steps that can be taken to increase the efficiency and sustainability of the healthcare landscape:
1. Prevention: Just as important as treatment, there should be a reorientation towards maximising health in a proactive manner at all ages. The cost of genetic sequencing has come down significantly, making it far more accessible. Subsequently, personal risk factors can be identified, and tailored prevention plans defined to prevent the onset of illness.
2. Technology: Increased accuracy in triage, medicine dispensing, and continuous monitoring will coincide with the ability to remotely diagnose patients bridging the accessibility gap.
3. Provision: Evidence based medicine, value-based care and personalised medical case management programmes will standardise the application of healthcare leading to better medical outcomes and optimise healthcare expenditure.
4. Transparency: Increased transparency and reporting on medical outcomes, especially in the private healthcare system will raise the level of trust and also help sustain costs, avoiding misuse and overuse while providing better medical outcomes.
With these changes, the healthcare industry will benefit from increased efficiencies and better medical outcomes but most importantly, these changes are critical to ensure sustainability of healthcare systems in the years to come.
Mr Jonathan Sternberg is VP Global Business Development & Strategic Partnerships at Medix, a global & leading provider of innovative, high quality, medical management solutions and recipient of the AIIA award for Best Service Provider of the Year 2017.
First published in the Asia Insurance Review. The 3P healthcare landscape; March 2018.