[Balanceinfinity]

Makes one wonder - in the absence of thorough regulation, why a third-party evaluator hasn't arisen to provide real risk analysis for patients regarding each device (the good device seal) - and I'm surprised insurance companies aren't more aggressive in ensuring that they aren't making the patients worse 9which would increase their insurance costs).

[Ididntdothis]

My theory is that insurance companies don’t try to save money as long as they can pass the cost to the patient or whoever pays the premiums. Otherwise I can’t explain the insanity of the charges hospitals are getting away with.

[novok]

If your limited to a certain percentage of costs as your profits, you have an incentive to increase costs. Hospitals and insurance enter into an unholy pact to increase costs implicitly as a result.

[Klinky]

Doesn't gaming the system to increase profits by increasing costs show malevolent motives which would not be fixed by removing profit restrictions? I mean if you're "evil" with regulations, why should I trust that removing regulations will make you "less evil"? It sounds like a crook asking you to remove the handcuffs.

[nickff]

Removing the profit regulations has less to do with enabling greed (which exists either way) than it does with aligning incentives.

The idea is that you want the insurance companies to profit from patients getting timely, cost-effective care, rather than incentivizing them to drive up costs and delays.

[Klinky]

Why would they not increase executive pay, raise prices and deliver worse service? Private industry is not perfect at utilizing resources or delivering great products all the time. You just assume they will deliver a better product, but their undermining of the current system shows that profit over patient outcome is already their top priority. Deregulate so the crooks are less crooked has blown up in our face before.

[Ididntdothis]

If you remove the profit regulations insurances will keep doing exactly what they are doing now while making more profit. The won’t pass savings to the patient unless forced to do so. Health care is just a very bad area to apply regular economics. As far as I know most countries have some kind of price control including the US with Medicare.

[nickff]

You are proposing a cost spiral due to greed; why doesn't this happen in every industry which provides 'essentials' but has no profit-limiting regulations?

Examples would be grocery stores, clothing, transportation, etc. You can say 'this one is different' about every single industry, but why does that difference matter?

[jellicle]

How exactly would this work? Station someone on the sidewalk outside the hospital and interview people leaving the building? "Excuse me sir, have you received a medical implant today? We're interested in enrolling you in our study group which will take a good deal of your time and give you no benefit..."

[Balanceinfinity]

More systematically: offer a "good housekeeping" seal. Presumably those who have good implants will cooperate and open their books so you can look at who they install to and outcomes. Being a reliable 3rd party, cooperating and getting a gold medal seal will help with sales.

[mattkrause]

1) For current patients, how will you get their data. I'm reluctant to give some places my email address; access to my complete medical records for the rest of my life is a giant stretch.

2) For future patients (or their doctors), how will you convince them that your recommendation is credible and not some kind of front for a specific manufacturer?