Published on January 18, 2019
Jaimy Lee Health Care News Editor at LinkedIn
Much of the attention around a
changing health care industry has focused on the chess moves of Amazon and Apple, plus other influential tech giants and venture
capitalists trying to rethink how technology can be used in health care — and
that often drowns out the the persistent problem of affordability.
“The system is terrible,” GoFundMe CEO Rob Solomon told Kaiser
Health News this week. “It needs to be rethought and retooled. Politicians are
failing us. Health care companies are failing us. Those are realities.”
GoFundMe, once a fund-raising site
for destination weddings and community service projects, has become a go-to
source for people to raise money to cover their medical costs. A quarter of a
million medical fundraising campaigns are launched every year on the site.
That said, some organizations and
executives have been talking up new ways to solve non-medical problems, like
homelessness and food insecurity, that often later lead to expensive medical
services.
·
Kaiser Permanente this week acquired a 41-unit
affordable housing building in Oakland, Calif., as part of its plan to find housing for
500 people who are homeless and have chronic health conditions there.
·
Select startups like CityBlock Health are sidestepping commercially
insured patients altogether, working with managed care plans that
serve Medicaid populations. The company, which has raised roughly $20 million
from investors, built its business model around using technology to better care
for low-income residents with chronic diseases.
·
Separately, Microsoft’s $500 million
investment in affordable housing this week may aid nurses struggling with the
cost of living in the Seattle area, according to NPR.
(Disclosure: Microsoft is LinkedIn’s parent company.) Nurses in Seattle have said the
cost of living has driven more of them to consider working extra hours or take
on side jobs.
News
I’m Watching
1. Is CVS testing drones for
medication delivery? That’s what a “visibly
flustered” CVS Health CEO
Larry Merlo told Stat in a
response to a question about drones. Now that CVS’s $69-billion acquisition
of Aetna has closed, the company is testing new ideas
to compete against Amazon, which last
year bought medication-delivery startup PillPack, and others. Besides examining drone delivery,
CVS said this year that it plans to open stores in Houston with expanded
clinical services, an idea first disclosed when announcing the Aetna
deal, reports MarketWatch.
2. The physician workforce is
frustrated and some are retiring early as a result. About 44% of roughly 15,000 U.S. doctors surveyed by Medscape said they are burned out, and 14% said
they have considered suicide. Those disturbing percentages underscore physician
frustration with the direction of their profession. Doctors cited long hours
(34%), increased time spent with computer systems like electronic health
records (32%) and lack of respect from colleagues (30%) as contributing factors
behind burnout.
3. What can Japan teach the
U.S. about caring for the aging? In
a country with one of the fastest-growing elderly populations, some health care
startups in Japan are developing tools to take better care of senior citizens,
such as using technology that keeps patients at home longer and can reduce the
burden on their caregivers. “The government is trying to bridge the gap between
doctors and IT,” the director of the industry ministry’s health-care
division told the WSJ.
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