Hospitals are incentivized to over prescribe treatment and/or inflate prices. Insurances companies have a limit in the profit margin they can make, so it’s more lucrative for them to pay for an expensive surgery than a preventative measure low cost measure. Not saying that this is what happens all the time, but the incentives are screwed up. The fact that you can’t call a hospital and get a straight answer on how much a procedure costs tells you everything. Crowdhealth is trying to fix this by changing the incentives, so that’s something to be optimistic about.
Discussion
Crowdhealth is very cool. But they're standing up against one of those Keynesian, violence-fueled Beasts...