Private Profits at the Public Trough

By John Ballard

Am I the only one who has seen those TV ads for motorized chairs for anyone with mobility issues but aimed directly at Medicare beneficiaries?

Let me tell you where I'm going with this. Over the last few weeks we have been assaulted by numerous references to how government programs have no place in the health care debate, and how all government does is mess stuff up and destroy the private sector. The insurance and drug companies have been sotto voce for the most part, but make no mistake about it, they will be the biggest beneficiaries of all of any new program, public or private, mandating universal coverage leveraged by a tax "incentives" (that's the polite word for penalty) to make it stick. 

Back to motorized chairs and such.

There is plenty of profit potential in the private health care sector as evidenced by this great new toy that Dr. Halamka features today as his "Cool Technology of the Week."

Before my trip to Japan, I attended the New England Healthcare Institute Medication Adherence Expert Roundtable on Thursday July 23rd, 2009. The purpose of the roundtable was to prioritize activities that would encourage patients to be more compliant with the medications, especially those with chronic diseases such as diabetes, congestive heart failure and COPD. Recommendations from the group included better patient education, enhanced use of IT such as medication reconciliation, and healthcare reform which ensures clinicians have the time and incentives to coordinate and manage all medications for their patients.

One technology that we discussed was an intelligent pill bottle for the home from rxvitality.com and it's my cool technology of the week. Using technology similar to the Ambient Orb, the intelligent pill bottle flashes to indicate when it's time to take the medication inside the bottle. When the bottle is opened it sends telemetry back to a portal which can be used to track patient medication adherence.

The device includes a small wireless access point for the home, making the device plug and play. No cell phone plan, configuration or special software is needed - just an internet connection.

A pill bottle that notifies the patient when medications are to be taken and informs the clinician when medications are actually taken.

That's cool!

Other links at the site.

But here is the point: Rather than seeing the "cost" question as the final nail in the coffin for meaningful health and insurance reform,  we need to see expanding the population of insured Americans as an important economic stimulus. Given the magnitude of the vision (it won't even get started for four or five years), correcting this bleeding artery in our national GDP may be the most effective emergency in our fiscal first aid kit. 

Unemployment assistance is running out for millions. COBRA assistance vanishes December 31. The CARS program was an explosive success but it's over. And all indications are that the unemployment, housing, jobs, credit and bankruptcy pictures are not going to get better any time soon.

Dr. Halamka's cool technology is to the overall discussion like wind power to the energy challenge, a seemingly trivial part. But once Detroit got religion, it didn't take long to see promising new American initiatives that are more than trivial. A similar economic revival is waiting for the passage of meaningful health care and insurance reform.

Vitality GlowCaps from Vitality on Vimeo.