The Promises and Constraints of Consumer-Directed Healthcare Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Consumer directed health care promises to reduce costs and improve quality through increased choice of supplier for potential patients. High-deductible insurance, employer or state-subsidized health savings accounts, transparent pricing, and accurate information about the clinical efficacy help create millions of patients to purchase health care. Like any other well-behaved market when patients shop, there is a link between financial compensation and the value for the patient. The absence of price competition, the Agency issues, and high barriers to entry in the local markets are market failures that currently break this link in American health care. Consumer directed health plans are already popular with many employers and created a momentum which indirectly generates debate on the reform of the Obama administration. The complexity of reporting clinical outcomes, dependence on the success of the treatment on the patient's own home behavior, and scientific ignorance among threaten the achievement of the results promised theory. Successful implementation requires attention to the complex control of data that controls for clinical risk avoidance, patient-focused marketing, which leads to over-consumption and adequate subsidies health savings accounts. In the end, the implementation shifts the locus of control of the cost of health care change between employers, providers, and payers newfound purchasing power of potential patients. "Hide
by Philip T. Powell, Ron Laufer Source: Business Horizons 12 pages. Publication Date: March 15, 2010. Prod. #: BH378-PDF-ENG