An eBay For Purchasers and Providers

BIlling itself as a "health services exchange," Open Health Market offers discounted, fixed, packaged pricing for an episode of health care.  

Discounts.  Fixed pricing.  Packaged services.  Easy access.  Transparent quality data. 

From the article:   "...this concept goes flying over the head of four out of five" U.S. hospital executives. "I'm stunned at how difficult it is for most of them to get their minds around it."

Stunned?  Really?

More here at Open Health Market's website.

7:20 PM

Doctors Learning to Speak "Iowan"

From Iowa Public Radio: Doctors Learning to Speak Iowan at Mercy Medical Center in Mason City, IA.

"Learning to speak English is one thing, learning to speak Iowan may be something else entirely. Iowa, especially in its more rural areas, has many foreign-born physicians practicing in clinics and hospitals. On today's program, we’ll find out about an innovative program in Mason City that helps doctors understand our state with courses like "Topics for Small Talk with Iowans." We'll talk to the teachers in the program at Mercy Medical Center North Iowa, Univ. of Northern Iowa professors Mark Grey and Michele Devlin. We'll also hear from the man who devised the program, Dr. David Little, and Family Medicine Residents Dr. Sreevalli Dega and Dr. Anileen Prabhakaran."

10:22 AM

What's On Your 'Unlearn' List?

Could you redesign a $300,000 house and build it for, say, 20 percent less?  Probably.  Easy, actually.  Just downsize some square footage, cheapen the finishes, toss overboard the granite and the tray ceilings and you're there.

What if I asked you for well-designed, safe, affordable shelter for the world's poor?  Oh yeah, shelter costing $300 to build?  That's right, $300.  Not $300,000.  Not $30,000.  Not $3,000.  Three measly hundred dollars.

Could you do THAT?  This team did.  And created a movement along the way, with a growing list of advisors, a website and corporate sponsors.  

No incrementalism here.  No "we'll start with the status quo and make it a little better."

We all know 'stuff' that's useful when the pace of change is comfortable and incremental.  Unfortunately, that 'stuff'  becomes blinders to be unlearned and forgotten when change of the $300 House magnitude is necessary.  Unlearning and a willingness to stand apart from the comfortable herd spouting 'We're no worse than anybody else.'

What would you have to unlearn to deliver an episode of care for, say, fifty percent less than today?  You better figure it out before the marketplace does, or you'll be living in one of those $300 houses.  Actually, it may not be that bad.

[Read the Harvard Business Review article...]

3:55 PM