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Big Ideas From The Forbes Healthcare Summit

The Forbes Healthcare Summit in New York last week brought together very senior people across the U.S. healthcare spectrum: CEOs of big insurance companies, R&D heads of top pharma companies, CEOs of major medical centers, and CEOs of a few of the key upstarts: AthenaHeath, ASAP Urgent Care, Rothman Institute, MinuteClinic, etc. Here’s a summary of the big ideas that emerged.

No One Thinks Health Reform Is Going Away. Regardless of the drama in Washington, health reform is going ahead, and the major institutions are working to adapt to it. Beyond the ACA* the big driver for this is patient empowerment, which was the theme of the conference. Patients are being forced to pay more of the cost of their care, and because of this plus social change, they are taking more control and demanding more information and service.

Healthcare Is Becoming A Consumer Business. Senior officer of a major hospital: “For a long time [we] thought care quality was all. Patient service and engagement has been a discovery. Care systems will need to provide understandable bills, and actual customer service.” Lives will move to the public exchanges (different views on how fast). Employers and insurers are offering private exchanges to stretch dollars and keep control: that puts them in the direct to consumer business. Consumers are doing a good job buying what they need on private exchanges: over-insured consumers tend to accept more risk; others spend more than the employer allowance to get what they need. New care modalities (drug store clinics, urgent care centers, surgi-centers) cater to consumer needs. Start-ups such as ZocDoc and Pokitdok facilitate transparency and consumer choice. Healthcare used to be primarily B2B, now it’s B2C**.

Patient Engagement Is The Key To Better Health At Lower Cost. Hospital CEO: “US health care was founded on dependence and authority. That is eroding. Patients now have access to technology and info: WebMD is the same info I got in medical school 30 years go, but it looks nicer”. Some see a new meme that makes healthiness a widely-held norm, similar to smoking cessation, seat belts, and sober driving. Insurance CEO: “It’s hard to get patient engagement without a provider in the mix.” The healthcare power players acknowledged a bit grudgingly that primary care needs to play a bigger role and have a seat at the table. As Gibbs would say, “Ya think?”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/toddhixon/2013/10/12/big-ideas-from-the-forbes-healthcare-summit/