Jefferson CEO Calls For More Transparency In Medicine
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The CEO and President of Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, Stephen Klasko, discussed his new book, We Can Fix Healthcare in an interview with Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT.
Klasko was emphatic that hospitals and doctors must do more to be customer friendly.
"We do a great job as doctors but we've never thought we have to also think about it as consumers. Frankly, the consumers, the patients have put up with stuff that they never would put up with in anything else. Think about the bills that you get from either hospitals or insurance companies. One of the twelve disruptors in my book is actually exactly that. Thou shalt always send a patient a believable, understandable bill for services rendered in matter that clearly states what was done, what it cost, and what the patient owes, regardless of who is paying the bill. That's not too much to ask."
He also said that medical providers and insurance companies need to stop standing in the way of change.
"Other people are paying for it, so at the end of the day, hospitals and insurers get to fight about who is going to get the majority of it. If people were paying for it directly, it would be different. Secondly, we've never had good data and we don't share data. I would argue that, I don't know if it's 51/49 or 49/51, but both the insurers and the hospitals have to get over themselves."
Ultimately, he thinks the demand for change will force the system to be more open and competitive.
"One of the things that needs to happen is transparency. You ought to know who you're going to, what it's going to cost, what the deductible is going to be. One of the good things that's going to happen, I'm not sure if it's from Obamacare or whatever, is deductibles are increasing, so people are thinking about it differently."
