“Health 2.0″ vs. Health Insurers: The Looming Clash

By David P. Hamilton in Bnet Health Care Industry The fact is that more widespread use and dissemination of patient data is a double-edged sword, one that seems likely to benefit patients in some ways while disadvantaging them in others. And so long as that’s true, the adoption of new healthcare IT products is likely to be a stop-and-go proposition at best. The fundamental problems are twofold. First, patients don’t have enough control over their own data, a subject the WaPo article addresses briefly — although it will likely require government intervention to actually make any sort of meaningful control possible. Second, and more important, patients and their doctors are never going to be able to exploit the emerging medical-data universe while health insurers’ business models are built on forcing sick people — or even those more likely to become sick — to pay more or do without coverage altogether.