Top Issues Facing the U.S. Healthcare System

The United States healthcare system has a few issues. Well, maybe a bunch of issues. Fortunately for me, I’ve had the opportunity to serve in the belly of the beast and live these problems. I wanted to write a post for all the health tech start-ups out there trying to solve these issues.

It was Albert Einstein who said that if he had one hour to solve a problem, he would spend 55 minutes defining it, and 5 minutes solving it. And if there is one person who knows his stuff, it’s Albert. While not every health innovation company’s goal is to creatively solve the problems facing modern medicine, there are some out there, and this post is for you. For those seeking to develop impactful solutions, here is a list of top issues that need some innovating.

• 30-day readmission rates
• 30-day mortality rates
• Hospital acquired conditions
• Patient satisfaction
• Successfully reporting quality measures
• Value-based payments
• Transition to ACO model (And, overall healthcare reform implementation)
• Safety (patient, staff, and organization as a whole)
• Equitable care (care for the under/uninsured)
• Personnel shortages (attracting top talent as well as reducing staff turnover/retention)
• Interoperability of technology
• Information storage and data safety
• Population and public health management

• Pressure to lower premiums
• Pressure to increase benefits to address the needs of changing demographics
• New legislative initiatives and increased regulations and oversight
• Financial and tax incentives and burdens
• Shrinking market of large employers
• Trend towards small business and self employed
• Need for more portability and stability of all employee benefits
• Need to reduce fraud and increase claim payment accuracy
• Need to have a more current and accurate view of their business performance