MedCity News October 29, 2019
During his Engage track keynote at HLTH, Robert Pearl painted a dysfunctional healthcare system that is ripe for disruption. A physician, author, former CEO at Permanente Medical Group and now a professor at Stanford University, Pearl noted that many Americans believe we have a great healthcare system. Unfortunately, the reality may fall short.
“We spend more on healthcare than the entire nation of India spends taking care of 1.2 billion people – their education, their clothing, their food, their transportation and their healthcare,” Pearl said. “Among the 11 industrialized nations, we are last. Last in life expectancy, last in child mortality, last in maternal mortality.”
Pearl suggested a few prescriptions for the ailing system, including getting rid of fee-for-service in...