The Long Fix - Solving America's Health Care Crisis with Strategies That Work for Everyone - Grand Format

Health care is killing our economy and, in many cases, killing us. Beyond the outrageous expense, the quality of care varies wildly, and millions of Americans can't get care when they need it. This is bad for patients, bad for doctors, and bad for business. In The Long Fix, physician and health care CEO Vivian S. Lee cuts to the heart of the health care crisis. The problem with the way medicine is practiced, she explains, is not so much who's paying, it's what we are paying for.
Insurers, employers, the government, and individuals pay for every procedure, prescription, and lab test, whether or not it makes us better—and that is both backward and dangerous. Instead of paying for actions, we should pay for results. When doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies are incentivized to keep people healthy, care improves and costs decrease. Dr. Lee shares inspiring examples of how this has been done, from physicians' practices that prioritize preventative care, to hospitals that adapt lessons from manufacturing plants to make them safer, to health care organizations that post online how much care will cost and the ratings other patients have given their physicians.
Using clear and compelling language, Dr. Lee paints a picture that is both realistic and optimistic. It may not be a quick fix, but her concrete action plan for reform—for employers and other payers, patients, clinicians, and policy makers—can reinvent health care, and create a less costly, more efficient, and healthier system for all.