Health is in Need of a Different Agenda for Innovation

Health is a system, and the system needs a different agenda for innovation There is a whole new bucket of patient debt emerging, and hospitals aren’t sure how to deal with it. Wage seizures lead patients to go on public assistance, fall behind on bills, give up their insurance and take on credit card debt, sucking utility companies and banks into the vortex. Everything is connected.

Per the Kaiser Family Foundation, nearly all employers’ health plans have a deductible. Low-wage workers are more likely to be offered high-deductible insurance, which is less expensive for employers. And plans sold through the ACA have high caps on OOP spending: as much as $8,200 for an individual, and $16,400 for a family.

Patient-centricity is perhaps best captured in this quote from The New York Times: “It’s not that we’re choosing not to pay, but there are other bills," said Mrs. Edwards, a McDonald's manager and single mother in Milwaukee. "My daughter has to eat, and if it’s choosing between that or paying a doctor bill, I’m going to choose her.” People aren't background radiation.

Behind the eternal sunshine of the spotless AI and gravitational pull of all things hashtag#digital is the sweep of human experience in a $3.6 trillion health economy that is failing at a system level.