Stakeholder’s Revolt

Stakeholders Revolt

I have never claimed to be able to solve our healthcare crisis. At best, I can define that a problem exists. Moneyed interests have inserted themselves in between doctors and patients. Whether it be businesses, politicians, or the insurance industry, those who have lobbying and political power are controlling the game. And it’s disastrous. Compliance and data compilation have risen to an all time high. The rocket fuel of the system is being gulped up by third parties, administrators, and “not for profit” entities. It time for the system to change. It’s time for a stakeholder’s revolt.

Who?

Who are the stakeholders? The major ones are quite obvious. It’s you and me. Doctor and patient. Nurse and family member. Physical therapist, occupational therapist, and chaplain. There are really only two sets in reality.

Those who provide care and those who receive care.

All else is redundant. The electronic medical records company will try to convince you that the bottom will fall out without their overly complex and expensive computer systems. They are wrong.

The insurance industry will swear that society can’t exist without them as they siphon our money away on co pays and and annual fees. It is a fallacy. Doctors and patients have coexisted for millennia without them.

There were hospitals before their were teams of mid level managers, compliance, and The JCAHO.

If were are going to fix this mess we need a stakeholder’s revolt.

How?

I see only two pathways forward. An easy way and a hard way. Neither of them will be simple. The first makes all the sense in the world. We need to come together.

Stakeholders need to bind together as allies. Doctors and patients. Those who provide caring, and those who are cared for. We need to stand together as one and influence the political system. To vote with an end in mind. We have to shun compliance when it is unnecessary and detrimental. And we have to hold the business of medicine accountable for unfair and predatory practices.

This will not be easy. Often it is hard to get such disparate parties to speak with one voice. Yet, if we remain fragmented than all will be lost.

The default is the second option. Instead of a bilateral stakeholder’s revolt, we will have unilateral action. That is what is happening now. Caregivers are opting out. Physicians are finding financial independence early and retiring, leaving medicine for greener pastures, or (sadly) committing suicide.

We are abandoning our calling. It is a slow painful death that will take decades for the cracks to fully appear.

But it is happening.

When?

The stakeholder’s revolt is already happening. Slowly. painfully. In a one-sided fashion. It is time we pursued this bond of allyship that I spoke of before.

Instead of leaving medicine, we have to ban together with our patients to demand change. We must affect political, socioeconomic upheaval before it is too late.

There is no better time than the present. Lives are being forfeit, and the economic machinations of a country are teetering towards the edge.

Why?

Because we are the greatest economic power of modern history. We have created this society to foster opportunity and safety for our masses. The rights of our citizens have always outweighed the rights of our politicians and our businesses.

Now shouldn’t be any different. We, as a community, have a right to fair and reasonable healthcare services without forcing bankruptcy on our populous. A right to get better without enriching some third party that doesn’t directly contribute to the outcome.

We have a right to a stakeholder’s revolt.