At Bovie Medical, we like to keep our blog readers informed regarding innovations in healthcare. Sometimes this even goes beyond electrosurgery units, J-plasma and even LED lighting systems. Here is a little something that some of you may have missed since it was published in the Wall Street Journal on this past Christmas Eve day.
The article was entitled, “Health Advances Make it Easier for People to Learn Causes of Illness, Test Results and Cost of Care”. It started out with, “From virtual doctor visits to online diagnoses, information technology is rapidly changing the way patients interact with the health system. Here are some innovations that are catching on more broadly and could improve care in 2014."
These are the 5 High-Tech Fixes they presented:
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Monitor Long-Distance (Virtual Care) - Doctors in remote “Command Centers” are increasingly keeping tabs on vital signs of patients in intensive-care units.
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Crowd-source an Ailment (Medical Detectives) - Got a hard-to-diagnose ailment? Patients can now post their symptoms online and offer a reward for a diagnosis from a host of doctors.
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Consult Via Video (Doctor on Demand) - Have a virtual consultation with a physician for nonemergency medical issues, courtesy of your insurer or health system.
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Text a Nurse (High-Tech Charts) - Bedside tablets let hospital patients text the nurse. Patients can check their charts and lab results.
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Calculate the Cost of Care (Health Care Math) - New insurance tools let patients compare the price of care between hospitals and calculate out-of-pocket costs.
We might also add:
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Research via Internet (Medical Device Research) - Go online to www.boviemed.com - to find the innovative products you need for your physician office, ASC or hospital OR. Just saying.
Much has been said and written about the badly blundered ObamaCare rollout. One of the late night hosts said that President Obama’s next job after office clearly won’t be a network administrator. I don’t think anyone believes that the premise of healthcare for everyone is a bad idea. A roof over ones head and food to eat also seem like reasonable goals for everyone in America. With the amount of food that is thrown away every day in restaurants and grocery stores, I have no doubt that we could feed everyone. A roof over everyone’s head will be a little more difficult, but if it was easy then anyone could do it, and this is America! OK, on to the article.
This well written article by Laura Landro ends with Calculate the Cost of Care. In my mind, one of the reasons our healthcare costs are so out of control is the fact that historically we have not asked the simple question, what will that cost? What else do you pay for without knowing the price going in? The insurance companies are coming to the rescue here. The example of the cost of childbirth in the New York city area ranges from less than $10,000 to almost $30,000. While the most expensive may be better than the least expensive one, I am willing to bet it isn’t worth the twenty thousand dollar difference. I tore my ACL last year and when I was going for my MRI the insurance company called me and said if I would go to a different location it would save me money. They handled moving the prescription, and setting up an appointment for me. I am quite sure it saved them money too, but that is fair in my book.
In closing, it is my belief that we could reduce the cost of healthcare in the USA much more by comparative shopping than by what the 2.3% excise tax is earning, which by the way is costing jobs and hurting innovation.
Enjoy the article!
J. Robert Saron
