As healthcare moves squarely into the twenty-first century, consumers are demanding personalized benefits, lower costs and accurate information about their coverage and claims. Competition is increasing and politicians and social leaders, who have been focused on provider side improvement, are now paying increased attention to the inefficiencies, high administrative costs and lack of consumer orientation on the part of the payer community. Oh, and one more thing – the demographics of the consumer are changing at a rate that neither you nor I understand.
These inefficiencies are unavoidable in today’s healthcare payer market. It is not their fault they are running on antiquated systems that will not and cannot grow to meet these needs. So while the movers and shakers make grand statements and Healthcare 2.0 makes it plight for the consumer what will happen; nothing. The Healthcare companies must stop relying on old technology (i.e. Trizetto, DST, and Perot) and start to look for emerging technology in modern languages. We need platforms that allow us to be flexible and nimble, enabling us to respond without significant barriers or significant cost.
The revolution is coming but we’re not positioned to handle it. The Healthcare industry cannot sustain this level of stagnation and survive. As the Y/Millennium-generation takes over, we need to realize one inevitable fact--technology is their life. The twenty and thirty something’s want transparency and they are a cynical bunch who do it themselves and do it online. Hey, they were born with laptops in their cribs. Healthcare is not ready for this and they need to be.
So I leave you with this, what do you want out of your healthcare provider and can they support your needs? If they can’t, who can and at what cost?
