Who’s Acting as the Patient Advocate?
Since joining the change:healthcare team I told myself that I would attempt to keep myself up to date on what people are talking about in the health care arena. Just yesterday I came across an interesting article Vince Kuraitis had written titled “Disease Management and Health Outcomes” (linked from his blog by special permission). As I scanned the article and blog post, reading about disease management (DM) and chronic care management (CCM), I couldn’t help but wonder “who’s acting as the patient advocate?” So I went ahead and asked Mr. Kuraitis what he thought.
Commenting on his blog entry “Disease Management and the Medical Home Model: Competing of Complementary?” I wrote, “In considering the convergence of DM and CCM, and the ability for doctors to “compete” in some sense over providing care-coordination services, I wonder who will be the patient advocate. The individuals suffering from chronic diseases, who are in constant need of efficient and effective medical care, need better tools to guide them through the cluttered system of care that currently exists in this country. I think that it is incredibly important for the health care community to begin supporting and educating consumers. Unfortunately, there is not enough of this happening. It seems like developments in new care models occur due to efforts made by the big companies, rather than the individuals driving need for care. Ideas?”
Well Mr. Kuraitis seemed to be on the same page as me. He responded via email,
“Your point about patient advocacy is valid and well taken. Yes, fundamentally the DM and Medical Home models are driven by business interests. Like it or not, the reality is that we have a mostly free market health care system, unlike most other countries.
Ultimately, this doesn’t make the DM model or the Medical Home model inconsistent with patient advocacy, but that’s not their starting point.”
I really appreciated Mr. Kuraitis’ response. He is much more experienced than I am in the business world (being that I am just getting started) and can probably evaluate new health care models at the turn of a dime. However, I still have an opinion… and here it is.
Like it or not, some companies, like change:healthcare, regardless of our “mostly free market health care system” want to develop models driven by consumer/patient needs rather than business interests. Hopefully the more companies take this approach, the more patients can educate themselves on the health care system, therefore empowering them to make health care decisions that really fit their interests rather than the “business”.
So in conclusion, I am proud to be part of a company that has plans to bring consumers and patients products and services that are targeted toward their interests. And if there are any suggestions on how we can do it better, by all means please let me know!
