For the past decade, healthcare reform has been front and center in all political news. It started with Obama’s platform when running for president way back in 2008 and it hasn’t taken its final curtain call yet. In fact, healthcare reform was a major thrust of Donald J. Trump last year when he was running up against a formidable opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton. President Trump’s efforts to overhaul a broken system have stalled, but perhaps that is because everyone is approaching it from the wrong direction.
Maybe Government Is Approaching Healthcare from the Wrong Direction
Could it be that patient care should be the primary focus, with business administration following closely in the rear? As an industry that deals primarily with the health and wellbeing of its ‘customers,’ shouldn’t patients’ needs be the main focus? It falls on experienced administrators with a minimum of a Healthcare MBA to balance the needs of patients with the financial stability of the healthcare facility.
Unlike other industries, if we fail our patients, who will be left as consumers? Keeping them healthy is at the heart of keeping the ‘business’ healthy. Unfortunately, it seems like government is approaching healthcare as they would any other big business. In an effort to fix this issue, President Trump named a healthcare professional to his team of advisors. However, Katy Talento’s expertise is in the field of epidemiology but not business administration. In other words, she’s an expert on infectious diseases.
Merging Healthcare with Business Administration
Healthcare reform demands more than a specialist within the field of healthcare. What the nation needs is someone who has business administration credentials as well. Sometimes business administration and healthcare are diametrically opposed, but someone versed in both disciplines can better work to find that elusive intersection. If a panel of advisors was composed of healthcare professionals who have taken the extra step of getting a healthcare MBA online, it just might be possible to merge healthcare with business administration.
In other words, there needs to be a solution wherein healthcare can be affordable without sacrificing the needs of patients or the financial health of the institution. Somehow all of this seems to have gotten lost in the translation. Healthcare isn’t business as usual. It is about the lives of the patients it serves – plain and simple.
The Buck Stops Here
Every time the President’s proposed legislation for healthcare reform goes before the House, it is shot down by politicians who seem focused on big business. Yes, hospitals need to operate at a profit, or at least break even, or they couldn’t continue serving patients as they do. While Tom Price, HHS Secretary, is an orthopedic surgeon by profession, it seems as though House leaders don’t want to hear what he is saying the industry needs to stay alive.
Price is just one man battling an uphill current, but with the help of other advisors who understand both healthcare and business principles, the President’s agenda just might slide by. Obamacare, as it was coined, failed. The concept of affordable care was noble, but again, politicians and big business got in the way. When will government realize that they are the problem not the solution? Someone needs to take responsibility for a failing healthcare system and that someone is government. If they would just consult with more healthcare MBAs, the solution could be simpler than the problem. Mr. Speaker, the buck stops here.
