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healthcare system

Inflamer of Inequities and Ineffective System

“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” – Leonard Cohen Society was destabilizing and disintegrating in front of our eyes. The severely cracked foundation that America was built on had crumbled to dust and was laid bare for us to see. Our unemployment, student loan, welfare, health insurance, and housing […]

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healthcare system

Healthcare System: Increasing and Unavoidable System Complexity

As companies grow and expand, they acquire and merge with information systems. Each time an additional system gets added or a system’s capabilities expand, the complexities and intricacies subsequently increase. Samuel Arbesman believes that system complexity is not a good or bad thing, but rather an inevitable thing (Lucky, 2017). He believes that everything done […]

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healthcare system

Healthcare System: Value and Sustainability

The current healthcare system is unsustainable in terms of affordability, quality, accessibility, and personalization. There are three broad tasks that can improve the current system: expand choice, improve affordability and quality, and speed up the conversion of volume to value. Value is important in any business model (Osterwalder, Pigneur, & Clark, 2010). It’s the “difference […]

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healthcare system

Healthcare System: Ideal State: Delivery of Care

A Walmart greeter welcomes the customer, engages with him/her, and guides him/her in the right direction. A top health executive for a giant retail chain advocates that this is how health plans should operate (Osbourne, 2016). As health plans sit opportunistically in the middle of patients, doctors, and pharmacists, they’re in the perfect position to […]

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healthcare system

Healthcare System: Current State: System Failure

One example of a system failure is the American Opioid Epidemic. Health plans commonly make it harder for patients to fill more expensive, less addictive pain management drugs (Volkow, 2016). They do this by requiring prior authorization, quantity limits, and contingent therapies. These restrictive measures are set on the plan’s formulary and essentially drowned prescribers […]