I think we can take this one step further, and comment on the fact that marketing is a mess all over, not just limited to Medicare, which is a mess. I base this on questions I get myself from seniors. You can look at insurance in the same light. The fact is we have built a marketing system that almost nobody understands, and I have issues there too, just like any other person on the web today.
Insurance, one more hot spot. The complexity of the many layers of how to qualify, which is the best drug, where have the clinical trials been successful, etc. and the list goes on and on. The decision making process today for anyone is not as simple as we used to enjoy, just simply due to the amount of information made available. Every day it seems I read about someone who has the "better" solution, but is it really better? Most of the time, not really. Perhaps it may have a couple points better than what I have relied on and have used, but then again with additional layers of information added, has the new grown to where it is beyond what I feel I need?
We have an information overloaded system almost anywhere you turn today, yet everybody but nobody is in control. I am not necessarily a fan of government control, especially with what we have today, government operating out of the 50s, if you will, that has not moved as fast as private enterprise in so many areas, but somewhere along the line somebody has to create some standards, and second yet, standards that everyone just might agree to work with. If there were a better meshing of the minds between government and private industry, we might see some of this, and that would entail a true interest in this effort, and not the "lobbying" we see today, just folks that could sit down at the round table and for a short while, forget about the dollar for a bit and put the great minds of both sides together.
Until we can maybe find the leadership individuals that might be able to accomplish this, we are stuck with what we have today, something nobody is happy with. Sure there have been attempts here and there, but again, scattered and fragmented, as not only is private industry fragmented, so is the government, so we end up with the same, fragmented solutions that really are not going anywhere.
Politics of late are a bit of a bore, again, working campaigns too, just like out of the 50s. Don't get me wrong that the 50s are all bad as there are some real lessons learned from those times, but as a world and nation we have grown from where our past roots have been, but again, I see the same old thing, folks talking, thinking they have a plan, but really it is nowhere to be found as at this point words are just words.
The folks with the data and knowledge how to use and manipulate data are the ones today with most influential opportunities to help and make sense of how to handle the layers and tremendous amounts of information that flows down the tubes today, but yet, where are they when it comes to finding leadership? We still have folks who can do a wonderful job talking, but don't have any technical backgrounds to substantiate, back to the figureheads.
So back to this year's elections here, there are some real nice folks out there running for office, but anyone with any real knowledge, hands on, no, just a bunch of nice folks that rely on what they are told from staff members, who many of which rely on the technical world too for their information. Would have been nice to see some technical folks chosen perhaps as running mates, in other words, acknowledging what is going on today with information technology and the need to have someone top notch at or near the top.
Smart leadership needs smart people, so until perhaps a time comes along to where this fact is embraced, we will continue to move in the same direction and perhaps a bit of a rut if you will. Everybody, yet nobody in control and as technologies continue to evolve, we will still have the figureheads still out there just talking about it.
In the meantime, politicians, government agencies will continue to be blind sided and investigations into what is going on will continue, as without some technical background, it takes a while to study and catch up, and in the meantime fragmentation and confusion rules, and as citizens we have to somehow figure out how to deal with it day to day and live our lives. Medicare, insurance, and healthcare continue to fragment and we all suffer, but if you stop for a minute and take a look around, think about the groups and companies that are growing, great minds of great institutions, Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, the Cleveland Clinic to name a few.
This is not to say there are not great things going on with breakthroughs and today we are on the cutting edge of getting close and perhaps maybe even eliminating diseases, and to those folks there should be a high five by all means. Too bad again, we don't have any of them in positions where they could really make a difference, as most people in the code and data end of things do really work with black and white, ones and zeros if you will.
When you take apart the information systems and dig in, there's audit trails and usually an entire process documented as to how the entire data plan was not only created, but how it functions, and in this side of the world most have no problem working as teams, as it is well known today that there is no one hero with information technology, it is all teamwork, perhaps a culture where others on the outside could learn.
Until such time to where information technology is advanced to center stage though, the system stands only to continue to grow in the current state and with each layer that is added, more techniques are required to "mine" and zero in on where one needs to be. The paragraph below is a perfect example, the marketing material didn't meet the guidelines, who's guidelines one might say? Where were they? Were they accessible? Were they realistic? How old were the guidelines? Who's running the shop? Were there any pro-active actions that could have been taken up front instead of the failed results having to make the news?
Maybe someday we might have some "smart" people at the top levels. Part of the process comes back to us as citizens as well to educate our selves and create a demand and sense of urgency, until then, fragments and fragmented society will remain. This is the opinion of the day and thanks to anyone who takes time to read; just a few words that came to mind today. BD
Seniors who who have tried to wade through all the marketing brochures for Medicare prescription drug plans know how confusing they can be. As it turns out, those brochures do a pretty poor job of meeting the guidelines laid out by the feds. A report out yesterday from the inspector generals office in the Department of Health and Human Services found that 85% of marketing materials didn't meet guidelines set out by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Whoops.
Health Blog : Marketing of Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Is a Mess
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