Where Does It Hurt?: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Fixing Health

Where Does It Hurt?: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Fixing Health Care

A bold new remedy for the sprawling and wasteful health care industry.

Where else but the doctorâ€™s office do you have toÂ fill out a form on a clipboard? Have you noticedÂ that hospital bills are almost unintelligible, exceptÂ for the absurdly high dollar amount? Why is it thatÂ technology in other industries drives prices down,Â but in health care itâ€™s the reverse? And why, inÂ health care, is the customer so often treated as aÂ mere bystanderâ€”and an ignorant one at that?

The same American medical establishmentÂ that saves lives and performs wondrous miraclesÂ is also a $2.7 trillion industry in deep dysfunction.Â And now, with the Affordable Care ActÂ (Obamacare), it is called on to extend full benefitsÂ to tens of millions of newly insured. You mightÂ think that this would leave us with a bleak choiceâ€”Â either to devote more of our national budget toÂ health care or to make do with less of it. But thereâ€™sÂ another path.

In this provocative book, Jonathan Bush,Â cofounder and CEO of athenahealth, calls for aÂ revolution in health care to give customers moreÂ choices, freedom, power, and information, andÂ at far lower prices. With humor and a tell-it-likeit-Â is style, he picks up insights and ideas from hisÂ days as an ambulance driver in New Orleans,Â an army medic, and an entrepreneur launching aÂ birthing start-up in San Diego. In struggling to saveÂ that dying business, Bushâ€™s team created a softwareÂ program that eventually became athenahealth, aÂ cloud-based services company that handles electronicÂ medical records, billing, and patient communicationsÂ for more than fifty thousand medicalÂ providers nationwide.

Bush calls for disruption of the status quoÂ through new business models, new payment models,Â and new technologies that give patients moreÂ control of their care and enhance the physicianpatientÂ experience. He shows how this is alreadyÂ happening. From birthing centers in Florida toÂ urgent care centers in West Virginia, upstarts areÂ disrupting health care by focusing on efficiency,Â innovation, and customer service. Bush offers aÂ vision and plan for change while bringing a breakthroughÂ perspective to the debates surroundingÂ Obamacare.

Youâ€™ll learn how:

â€¢ Well-intended government regulations prop upÂ overpriced incumbents and slow the pace ofÂ innovation.
â€¢ Focused, profit-driven disrupters are chippingÂ away at the dominance of hospitals by offeringÂ routine procedures at lower cost.
â€¢ Scrappy digital start-ups are equipping providersÂ and patients with new apps and technologiesÂ to access medical data and take control of care.
â€¢ Making informed choices about the care weÂ receive and pay for will enable a more humaneÂ and satisfying health care system to emerge.

Bushâ€™s plan calls for Americans not only to demandÂ more from providers but also to accept more responsibilityÂ for our health, to weigh risks and make hardÂ choicesâ€”in short, to take back control of an industryÂ that is central to our lives and our economy.

From the Hardcover edition.
Country USA
Manufacturer Portfolio
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2014-05-15
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Portfolio
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2014-05-15
Format	Kindle eBook

Where Does It Hurt?: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Fixing Health Care

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