Now that the mind of the physician is being demystified we have a glimpse into how they view us as their patients. Look at the slew of books & blogs by physicians; what really happens, what they really think.

How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman provides an inside look at the physician’s mind, to help, I presume, the patient to get the most out of this relationship.  Also, add to the mix the latest online columnist for The New York Times Dr. Pauline Chen, with her Doctor and Patient column, giving readers a surgeon’s view of this dynamic relationship.

A recent LA Times article advises readers to arm themselves with information in order to get the best care. Long gone are the days of the sacred doctor patient relationship.

So why not shop around for a doctor? We have consumer reports on everything from cruises to pet food, automobiles to fitness centers.If the trend continues, and I see no reason why it won’t, employers are shifting more and more of the responsibility of healthcare spending onto the shoulders of employees, a la HRA’s (Health Reimbursement Accounts) and HSA’s (Health Spending Accounts).

I understand the reason for the shift, ever increasing health insurance premiums (think high single-digit to double-digit increases annually) that hit the company’s bottom line.

So to help stem the high-tide of premiums employers are getting more creative in their health insurance offerings, like increasing out of pocket premiums and giving employees a lump sum of money to spend on their healthcare (HRAs/HSAs).But this requires employees to shop around for the best deal.

If I’m given $2,000 a year to spend on healthcare and medical bills I’m surely going to find the best quality of care for the best price. OK, I admit most people don’t like doing this but that’s what it’s coming to.

And I see an opportunity in the market to offer this type of information to the health consumer, i.e. the employees who have this type of health spending account.

So why not healthcare shopping online like I do for books, clothes and travel? Today I can easily research a potential doctor’s background and this will give me her/his medical credentials, but most patients want to know more than just where they went to school or where they did their residency.

The key is going to be finding websites that offer information and ratings that I find reliable and meaningful.I think things are heading in that direction. There are several sites that are attempting to do this. Take Vitals.com, www.vitals.com, a site dedicated to sharing information about physicians throughout the country. You can rate your doctor and his/her office sharing information about the entire experience. This is good stuff.

With choice comes responsibility and I’m sure several medical professionals are worried about how non-medical professionals will make decisions on quality but this, too, can be worked out.

Meaningful metrics for quality of care will take time to iron out but it’s not rocket science. The hospitals, medical centers, primary care facilities that are setting themselves up to be judged according to these new realities will be quite a few steps ahead of the competition.

And if you think that’s too much work there is always medical tourism. But I’ll save that for another posting.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 9:41 pm and is filed under HRA/HSA, Patients as Healthcare Consumers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.