Paul Keckley has taken a very generous approach to gift giving this year. He includes politicians, patients, doctors, students and executives on his healthcare Christmas wish list. He wants transparency in information, better financial decision, an education in the ACA for all, more thinking, and less complaining. He has 25 wishes on his list. These are my favorites.
- I wish that every member of Congress, political pundit, journalist, consultant and lobbyist engaged in the health reform debate is required to work a full day in a hospital emergency room.
- I wish U.S. high school and college curricula included a class on “how the U.S. health system works” that everyone must take to graduate.
- I wish the GOP would complete the sentence: “Repeal and replace with..?” And I wish the Dems wanting a “single payer system” would explain what they mean and how it would work.
- I wish private insurance company coverage and denial policies and procedures, and criteria for narrow networks were easily accessible as public information. Ditto every hospital and health system’s severity adjusted costs, prices and outcomes, and physician ownership of facilities to which they refer patients and derive income.
- I wish I could own my medical record and control access by anyone else.
- I wish U.S. trade policy would recapture the R&D investment made by U.S. taxpayers and consumers in drugs and devices that benefit the world.
- I wish scope of practice for advanced practice nursing was expanded nationally to allow for diagnosis and treatment of common conditions.
- I wish health reformers would find solutions for high-risk populations and end-of-life heroics so dollars spent for the rest can be appropriated better.
- I wish I could buy insurance that accommodates my needs and preferences with a modest set aside for higher risk populations necessary to managing population health.
- I wish we could accelerate the transition from volume to value by eliminating fee for service incentives for most health care services.
- I wish physicians were as passionate about adopting meaningful use of certified electronic health records that improve accuracy in diagnosing and treating medical problems as they are their financial systems that streamline and enhance payments from third party payers.
- I wish the physicians serving in Congress knew as much about the health system—how each sector operates — as they pretend.
- I wish we could connect health services and human services programs — public clinics, food stamps, mental health programs, environment and food supply — in every community to reduce redundancy and improve population health status.
- And I wish a grassroots rational, national discussion about the value of the U.S. health system would “break out” so every individual, employer, community leader and legislator could answer the question “what are we getting for what we’re spending? Source
