Latest / CareTalk: Healthcare. Unfiltered. / Why Primary Care Is on Life Support

Transcript

Why Primary Care Is on Life Support · CareTalk: Healthcare. Unfiltered.

• 0:07
  David: That sounds good.
• 0:07
  David: Well, I cut you off right when you said the answer is, I feel it's like one of those movies.
• 0:11
  David: It's like, maybe there isn't an answer, but, you know, let's, let's hear about your answer.
• 0:15
  David: And, and also I'm interested why the focus on employer-based healthcare, whereas, you know, like often people say, well, you know, the government is the one that's making all the policies.
• 0:24
  David: So I, I'm, I'm intrigued by that employer based focus too.
• 0:30
  Zeev: So the solution, uh, is, is a high level one.
• 0:34
  Zeev: 'cause we, you know, we could, you know, spend some time getting into some big ticket items and details.
• 0:39
  Zeev: But, um, and I'll, I'll give you a couple, but when you have tried something for 40, 50, 60 years and it's not working and you keep on trying and trying and you say, well, if I just throw more money at it, or if I throw more technology at it.
• 0:55
  Zeev: Um, before I throw a more science at it, you keep on trying that and over and over again in different permutations.
• 1:00
  Zeev: Now it's, it's ai.
• 1:02
  Zeev: You know, before that it was digital technology and before that it was data.
• 1:07
  Zeev: And before that it was the electronic medical record system.
• 1:09
  Zeev: I mean, you know, again, the, the value of being in this game for, for so long as I have, I've seen this story, I've seen this play every, you know, this is like the sixth time and, you know, so the simple answer is do anything else but what you're doing.
• 1:24
  Zeev: Do something different.
• 1:25
  Zeev: I mean, it's not, it's, it's basic, basic wisdom.
• 1:29
  Zeev: If what you've been doing is not working, don't do it better.
• 1:32
  Zeev: Don't do it more.
• 1:33
  Zeev: Do it differently.
• 1:35
  Zeev: And so, a very, very concrete example, I think, you know, kind of a little bit of what you were going to is like, we spend 5% of, of healthcare dollars in this country on primary care.
• 1:45
  Zeev: Okay?
• 1:46
  Zeev: 5%. Um, we know.
• 1:50
  Zeev: Most chronic disease, 80% of chronic disease can be mitigated, uh, reversed, radically reduced by preventive, proactive primary care.
• 2:00
  Zeev: So why aren't we spending more money?
• 2:02
  Zeev: Other countries spend two to three times that amount, relatively speaking on primary care.
• 2:07
  Zeev: Um.
• 2:09
  Zeev: We've really denuded primary care in this country and it's going away.
• 2:13
  Zeev: As you said in the introduction, it's dying in the vine.
• 2:16
  Zeev: When I talk to the experts around the country, primary care essentially is on life support.
• 2:20
  Zeev: Right now it's in the ICU and it's dying.
• 2:22
  Zeev: And I'll tell you something, uh, when that goes.
• 2:25
  Zeev: Uh, you, you know, watch out.
• 2:28
  Zeev: The system's gonna implode because, you know, relying on specialists, and again, I, I love specialists and I appreciate what they do.
• 2:35
  Zeev: Um, some of my best friends are specialists, important, critically important work, but we have to rightsize this system.