Industry Makes Headway Into Almost Limitless Innovations
How many people have rushed to the doctor’s office only to be delayed for hours, deluged with questions and paperwork and had greater concern shown for their insurance information than for their symptoms?
Unfortunately, this scenario is all too common. Whether it is third-party payer systems, flawed reimbursement models or a combination of these, there is little doubt customer service has all but left health care.
With physicians monetarily motivated to see the highest volume of patients possible, who can blame them? Physicians have less time than ever to communicate with patients, to continue their education, and to keep up with their industry. On top of that, with managed care often driving health care delivery, patient satisfaction is waning. But not for long.
Consumer pressure is forcing organizations to refocus their products and services on their direct consumers, not on the intermediaries or third parties on the supply chain.
In the world of health care, the consumer is the patient, and patients are no longer tolerant of systems that put insurance companies in charge of their care and limit the flexibility of their physician. Nor are they tolerant of physicians that are not current with the latest treatments and, increasingly, alternative therapies.
& #711; ‘Net Raises Consumers’
Level Of Connectivity
The Internet is changing the way people live, work and play. From grocery shopping to sharing business information around the globe, the Internet has created a level of connectivity for the average person that radio, television and print can’t touch. For that reason, it has become the medium
of the consumer.
Every day our expectations are ratcheted upward by the latest application of Internet technology.
For the health care consumer, the reasoning runs something like this: “If I can bank online, why can’t I view my hospital bill online? If I can shop online, why can’t I renew my prescription online? If I can register for a class online, why can’t I schedule an appointment with my physician online?”
The questions are valid, but the real question is, how will health care react?
The signs are positive. In 1999, the term “eHealth” emerged to describe the broad range of initiatives taking place to make use of Internet technologies in health care.
Dot-coms have sprung up to fill the void while leading-edge providers and managed care organizations have begun adopting the Internet to improve their services.
& #711; Web Sites Manage
Flow Of Information
In fact, there are now so many sources of information and health services that it takes a new class of sites like HealthGrades.com and TheHealthPages.com to sort them all out.
Dot-coms like PlanetRx.com, Healtheon/WebMD, Drugstore.com, HealthCentral.com and Scheduling.com exploded on the scene, propelling E-health ahead of all other Internet industries in terms of growth.
Venture capital companies shifted investments from E-tailers to E-health and a landslide of funding fueled dozens of new entrants to this nascent market. The third and fourth quarters of 1999 and the first quarter of 2000 set sequential all-time
records for venture capital investments in start-ups.
The challenge now is figuring out the significant differences and the true value propositions of the various business models.
Leading-edge providers like Minneapolis-based Allina Health System, San Diego-based Scripps Health and Seattle-based Providence Health System are reaching out in a number of ways to their E-health consumers.
Allina provides online services like health plan enrollment, appointment scheduling, claims status and medical content. Scripps constructed an Intranet infrastructure to facilitate the communication of information
throughout its facilities in San Diego County. Providence has enabled access to patient records via the Internet in a collaborative effort with one of its primary software vendors.
The innovation doesn’t stop here. Dozens of others are launching Web-based services to enhance their business models, including everything from posting pictures of
newborns, to virtual tours, to online gift shops.
& #711; Health Care To Be
Transformed By Web
In the future, when wireless Web access is pervasive, the E-health consumer will experience health care in a totally different way. Routine access to health care will be scheduled online, the patient will check the Web to see if the doctor’s office is behind schedule, and the patient’s insurance card will have a hyperlink encoded to a secure Web site containing all relevant insurance and health information.
Patients will pay their bills online. Patients and physicians will have access to current information anytime, anywhere and will have new communication channels available like streaming audio, video and even basic E-mail, encouraging a stronger and more open relationship with physicians.
The technology exists to make the future bright for health care. What remains to be seen is how well legal, insurance and governmental agencies react to the possibilities and realign current barriers to their implementation.
Ringwall is the COO of Enosus, Inc. in San Diego, a wholly owned subsidiary of DAOU
Systems, Inc.
