Not Getting What We Pay For
This Washington Post article is right-we aren’t.
The article does highlight some great examples, including this gem which we featured on this blog when it first came out in WSJ.
It is possible to change the incentives, Kaplan said. Partnering with Starbucks and the insurer Aetna, Virginia Mason devised a new strategy for dealing with back pain, the leading medical complaint of Starbucks' coffee-pouring baristas. Virginia Mason made big money on MRIs, but there is little scientific data that the scans resolve the problem.
So they flipped the process, trying physical therapy first. To make up for some of Virginia Mason's lost revenue, Aetna increased its payment for the therapy. Today, the majority of Starbucks employees with back trouble return to work within 48 hours without an MRI or a prescription, Kaplan said.
Under their high performance suggestions, they only list a few that would truly be considered novel:
“…researching what treatments work best, realigning financial incentives to reward success, encouraging prevention strategies most daunting but perhaps most important, saying no to expensive, unproven therapies”
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