Technology Saves you Money and Helps You Lose Weight

In order for a system to work, it needs to regularly maintained and updated.  If the system gets old and outdated everything falls apart while efficiency and quality take a downward spiral.  Now take this concept and think about it in retrospect to our healthcare system. We live in a world that is constantly evolving do to increasing technology and new ideas.  In order to keep moving forward we adapt, we change, we update. Our healthcare system has fallen behind while the consumers (us) have moved forward. We use technology every day whether it be different smartphone applications to help keep our daily lives in order, or help us stay healthy. In fact, the amount of applications used to help consumers track their health status and to help improve it has been increasing in the past few years. So, when I read about the idea of compensating consumers for taking steps to improve their health I admittedly, at first, thought it was a horrible idea. However, after some careful thought and more reading the idea didn’t seem to bad. Now, I’m not encouraging a huge compensation package, but I do agree with Michelle Snyder in the fact that if insurers offered lower premiums or co-pays for patients who took responsibility for their health and steps to improve it, our overall costs of healthcare would decrease. , It’s proven that people work faster, better, and more efficiently is they are receiving some type of reward in return. So why not incentivize healthcare consumers to keep themselves healthy? By doing this we leave room in hospitals and other doctors offices for the patients who need it the most. As well as save us some time and money.  You may be thinking, how are we suppose to know if patients are actually taking steps to improve their health status? The answer lies within technology. Using wearable technology is the way to go when coming up with an answer. It’s affordable, effective, and simple. With preventable conditions like heart disease and type-2 diabetes on the rise, this is an idea we should all be thinking about. The new system is all about consumers and giving them the choice, informing them about policies, etc. but what it fails to do is include the consumer. Information isn’t the main problem when it comes to people staying healthy, it’s convincing patients to be responsible for what they can control, its about giving them more of a reason to take their health into their own hands. In the end, it can benefit not just themselves, but the entire system.

EVERA. Everyone should feel this good about healthcare.

Source:

http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2014/06/02/should-health-consumers-be-paid-for-performance-too/#more-73962