Tele-Homecare
from the not-so-fast dept
An interesting article looking at some of the new technologies that can be used for “tele-homecare”. Things like pacemakers or shirts that monitor health conditions and send updates wirelessly to physicians. The article also talks about remote surgeries and other procedures. However, the really interesting section is the last part of the article that says these aren’t advancing that quickly because insurance companies don’t see how to make money off of them, and thus won’t support them. Sure, they may save lives, but they don’t save money, and when health care is a business, apparently money is more important than lives. They also point out that many doctors are against these technologies as well, as they’re afraid it will cut into their incomes due to fewer patient visits. I think we have an incentive problem here. It would appear that the incentive for doctors is to keep their patients just sick enough to have to keep visiting.
