Tuesday, January 30, 2018

The Health Care business

This is an enormously complex problem, overall.

My experience is not extensive, but I have had to use several "providers" over the last 40 years.

Kaiser Permanente was superior. Also, the most expensive. KP is the most computerized HC provider that I am aware of. This means that their knowledge and planning and efficiency is highest, and that they can be proactive about various things, like telling you when it's time to do this or that (just like the Ford dealer sends you an email when it's approx time for an oil change).

The rest of the industry seems a lot less data-efficient. There's no good reason for that, other than lack of willingness to spend the money to be better, and a fear on the part of some employees that computerization will put them out of a job. That is of course, true, but is like a buggy-whip manufacturer in 1910 saying "automobiles will never replace horses" -- yet here we are.

So today I have read an announcement that Warren Buffet (of Berkshire-Hathaway fame), Jeff Bezos (creator of Amazon), and a guy from J P Morgan Chase (CEO?) will team to create a brand-new Health-Care service to tackle the US HC-provider cost issue.

This is great.

I have no idea who the JPM guy is, and let's not pretend that the banking/financial industry in the US has a good reputation (the seemingly endless parade of scandals based on the industry being greedy goes back as far as you can read).

But we know who Warren Buffet is, perhaps the epitome of good guy who is really wealthy.

Jeff Bezos is the guy who is revolutionizing the retail industry. Amazon is the business to be afraid of if you are in retail sales--aka brick-n-mortar stores. He bought Whole Foods last year, and while we haven't seen "organic food delivered by quad-copter drones" yet, we will.

So this combination is really interesting: you won't go to CVS for prescriptions, NewCO-HC will delivery them via drone. Well, KP sent me pills in the mail, so this isn't too far-fetched at all. The only reason to use CVS is when you get a prescription and need the pills immediately. KP had its own pharmacy in-house, so you could see a doc and then go downstairs for the pills. Refills I always got in the mail.

The initial story on this is that the service will be for their employees, but of course 20 years ago Amazon only sold books.

This will be interesting.

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