ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at some ideas that are working in limited fashion with the potential to scale—ideas in motion. The Internet has changed many other industries, in some cases facilitating the elimination or downsizing of professions that stand between consumers and information or services. The ease with which consumers can access information about other aspects of their lives has raised consumers’ “information expectations” in healthcare. Susannah Fox at the Pew Research Center has shown that 59% of adults go online in search of health information. The very act of changing reimbursement methods from fee-for-service to a model that pays for outcomes, keeping people as healthy as possible, and the care coordination to make that happen will require greater communication with patients. Due to the continuing increase in health insurance costs for employers, more continue a shift to consumer-directed health plans (CDHP), which often are high-deductible health plans and which may be coupled with health savings accounts (HSAs).
