How Do You Outsource Health Care – You Don’t

Every industry has what is called a “business model’ and different industries can all learn from each other on marketing techniques, practices, etc. to create a proof of concept, but the one industry that is different is healthcare.

I guess if you wanted to call clinical trials a “proof of concept” I guess that might be the closest area to relate, but the entire crux of the matter with health care is that there are certain “fixed” expenditures, after all this is the “people” business. We are not stacked and shrink wrapped on a pallet to be moved from place to place as are commodities, although today as a human with some current practices one may in fact begin feeling a like a commodity.

There have been attempts to outsource surgeries, medical care, etc. but the growing oil prices today are also taking their tolls in those areas a well. As a country we have worked hard to exhaust every avenue of outsourcing that we can find in the pursuit of providing products and services at a lesser cost. Much of this has been done in health care as well and there is nothing wrong with better efficiencies and use of funds by any means, but where does this cross the line with providing health care. That line is somewhat of a moving target today, with nobody in control.

With all the budget talks and cuts occurring today, it’s time to realize that there are certain fixed expenses that are not going away, and thus it makes me wonder have we in fact crossed that line in the pursuit of economy. I’m a great believer in technology and what it can do to provide a better quality of life, but am also aware that it can indeed have the opposite effect if not managed properly.

So when it comes to budget talks, government, healthcare, etc. it’s time to rally up to the fact that perhaps much of the “fat” has already been trimmed and now we are faced with the reality to pull within our own resources and take care of our own. There will always be a way to save a penny here and there, but we need research, we need the providers to carry out trials and lifesaving treatments as well as the people who support them.

When it comes to outsourcing health care, we seem to have come to one big stumbling block, it just can’t be done to the extent of many other businesses, and there are fixed and rising costs associated, and some day if that can become a reality process and a system created to fund, we might all be a lot happier and better off. Healthcare needs money and funding to survive, people need health care to survive and live.

Health care is not only a money issue, it’s a moral issue and of late the morality seems to tragically taking a back seat to the dollar issue (just read the news) and if methodology concepts don’t change somewhere down the line soon, it’s not going to get any better. This is one industry that can’t be sold and outsourced to the lowest bidder. BD