tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010387589635528818.post2837159118426872741..comments2024-03-17T12:30:37.450-04:00Comments on The KHIT Blog: The Association of Regional Centers for Health Information Technology (ARCH-IT)BobbyGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03807934795994985233noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010387589635528818.post-56825401325258663942012-06-27T13:52:13.439-04:002012-06-27T13:52:13.439-04:00More detailed thoughts on consumer instincts in he...More detailed thoughts on consumer instincts in healthcare: http://healthcareintelligencepartners.com/blog/?p=14Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03811367624800673005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010387589635528818.post-89284276677096236962012-06-27T10:58:31.205-04:002012-06-27T10:58:31.205-04:00Katanga, keep 'em coming.
"our consumer ...Katanga, keep 'em coming.<br /><br />"our consumer instincts are so off base in healthcare"<br /><br />Boy, is THAT ever true. But, it's a generalization -- "healthcare. There are indeed aspects of health care that lend themselves most effectively to a consumerist decision perspective. But, the generalization troubles me. See the works of medical economist J.D. Kleinke in that regard.BobbyGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03807934795994985233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010387589635528818.post-34996330974554025252012-06-27T10:02:54.586-04:002012-06-27T10:02:54.586-04:00I think we're getting tripped up on the two de...I think we're getting tripped up on the two definitions of value, which may be a bigger problem than we let on. Value is both the abstract perception of utility, AND the ratio of utility to cost. Economists typically punt on the issue of perception of utility (the increasingly unhelpful "Utils") since they assume that individuals can determine utility for themselves. I'm less convinced that consumers of whatever stripe but particularly regarding healthcare are adequately prepared to determine utility since our consumer instincts are so off base in healthcare. <br /><br />I wholeheartedly agree with your last statement that we need more refined tools/methods for value analytics. From a consumer perspective, I want to know what the marginal benefit to my life is of three versus four days of exercise per week. Or of losing weight. Or of keeping my cholesterol low. Now it's just "do it because it's good for you" which undermines decision-making concerning classic economic utility maximization. How do I evaluate the choice between eating the cheesecake and running for 30 minutes?Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03811367624800673005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010387589635528818.post-22598143462765578232012-06-26T12:13:15.606-04:002012-06-26T12:13:15.606-04:00Thanks for you comment. And, if you take the troub...Thanks for you comment. And, if you take the trouble to read the breadth of my postings, you should see that I don't in general uncritically buy hazy notions. I have to disagree that "value as a concept" is totally subjective. Hip replacement surgery that costs $1x at hospital A and $2x at hospital B, with clinically equivalent outcomes on patients who were clinically equivalent going in means, in any commonsense use of the word, that hospital A delivered twice the "value." "Dollars" are ratio-level data.<br /><br />Not that we don't need more refined tools and methods for value analytics.BobbyGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03807934795994985233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010387589635528818.post-36151055171265108062012-06-25T11:13:44.110-04:002012-06-25T11:13:44.110-04:00I want to take issue with your re-post of the sect...I want to take issue with your re-post of the section on healthcare value. My contention is this: any concept of value that is dependent on cost will invariably fail in the healthcare domain. Why? There are too many perversions of cost to use it as an independent variable in calculating value. It's like using a bungie cord to measure distance when you're calculating miles per hour. Value as a concept is the perception of the purchaser about a transaction. Until purchasers have better tools to assess the marginal impact of healthcare interventions, value is going to remain a vague concept. But let's at least be cognizant that imputing value from cost is dead end.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03811367624800673005noreply@blogger.com