It appears the health insurance industry is as hopeless as the BP oil spill.
Massive amounts of dollars are being dumped into a system that does little to improve health outcomes or control costs.
And Americans despise health insurance companies as much as BP.
Just when I thought all health insurance companies were as inept as BP, I read a story in the NY Times about Geisinger Health System, an insurance company in rural Pennsylvania who's primary interest is keeping their patients healthy and physicians happy.
Using innovative research and technology to "strive for perfection," Geisinger is going to extreme lengths to care for their patients. As just one example, they've installed about 1,500 home monitoring devices in patient homes to closely monitor their blood pressure, glucose levels and weight, helping them avoid complications and hospitalization.
And what's really impressive?
Geisinger pays physicians and nurses to keep patients healthy, sharing a large percentage of the savings with them.
As reasearch shows, this close collaboration between patients and providers has "significantly reduced the number of unnecessary hospital admissions and readmissions."
Rewarding physicians for providing quality healthcare while lowering costs? Now there's a healthcare model that makes sense.
