This is the 2nd post in the Health Information Economy series. We are outlining a number of elements outlining a vision for a robust health information economy as we put together a submission for the Economist-Innocentive Health Information Economy Idea Challenge.
What is Fundamentally Valuable in Health?
Those who find better, cheaper approaches to improve health should be rewarded, right? Therefore, there should be a market for information that enables these systems to be put in place.
Unfortunately, the marketplace in healthcare (with a focus on the US) does not measure nor reward the improvement of health. Today’s fragmented health systems are dominated by the needs of large players, each attempting to maximize their share of the pie for the specific transactions and services they perform. In such an environment, the actual value of the services delivered to any individual matter much less than the negotiating clout of each of the players and structure dictated by the biggest payer — the government, regardless of the impact to the health of any specific individual or community.
For the purposes of this exercise, we will not start from this current model as a given. Instead, we will assert that each individual would value the best possible health outcomes for them at the lowest total cost to them and their family. As individuals aggregate into groups, the same standard should hold, but at the group level. By this definition, value would be created as organizations discovered how to maximize the outcomes for individuals along some pricing curve.
As we look to create a sustainable Health Information Economy, we assert that in order for this new economy to exhibit rational and ethically consistent behavior, there must be rewards for those that can demonstrably improve the health of individuals and populations while holding down cost. A Health Information Economy based on a currency of improved health value creates rational incentives down the line.
How would one measure this currency? We’ll explore some possibilities in our next post.
