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Who's In Charge of Your Healthcare?

Is it your doctor, the government, your insurer, or nobody?

By John Boden

November 30, 2008

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The majority of the medical industry continues to operate with the management systems of the 1950s and 60s. Paper, manila folders, pen and pencil, rows of file cabinets, and warehouses full of past records. They have computer systems, but guess what, they are only there to file claims and get the money.

Your car has a maintenance record system that is far superior to the record of your health care. Whatever brand of car you drive, every dealer in the country can provide your car with service. They know everything about the car and everything that has been done to it, whenever and wherever it received service in the past.

They can plug your car into a computer, record the symptoms and then learn the best course of action to take based on the successful experience of thousands of other service providers.

Would you fly in a plane that had its maintenance records sitting in a cardboard box in a warehouse in New Jersey? Would you keep your money in a bank that wrote the deposits and withdrawals in your bankbook with a pen? This is what we all used to do and what the healthcare industry still does, with a few rare exceptions like the VA healthcare system.

For five years in a row, veterans have given VA their top health care rating. The primary reason is that they "service" their patients as efficiently and as effectively as the dealer network services your car.

Unmanaged care

There was a huge wave of resentment a few years ago about the term "Managed Care". But we have to be careful what we wish for. That wave of resentment about this term has contributed to keeping our healthcare unmanaged.

So let's "coordinate care" -- same thing, different perception. Remember the Wall Street Bailout failed, so it became the Financial Rescue, and it passed.

We should be mad as hell and refuse to take it anymore. Progress will only happen when we demand that our healthcare be managed effectively and accurately.

As the powers that be -- government, insurance and providers -- fight and argue about what to do, how to do it, and who gets to be the boss, nothing happens. The only solution we have today is to take charge of keeping our own records. If you take the time and make the effort now, you and your family will be far safer.

There are tools out there like LifeLedger to help you in the process, but even if you only keep medical information in a manila folder, you will be ahead of the game. Get mad, take charge, and do it now!

John Boden, a longtime geriatric care manager, is president of LifeLedger.com, a Web site for family caregivers.

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