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Final Keynote Address: Michael McCallister, President and CEO, Humana
Presentation Title: “Healthcare is Broken, But It Can Be Fixed”
Mr. McCallister opened his presentation to the Conference with a simple statement: there is no health system today. Healthcare contains many self-interested parties, so it is hard to have the information and knowledge transfer to make the most of our care. As a result, improvement of both cost and quality is a dual imperative for healthcare today. In terms of cost, excessive use of healthcare in the U.S. remains a key trend and is bolstering the growing cost for care. At the same time, our spending has not yielded the best quality outcomes.
One of Humana’s goals to tackle the cost-quality imperative is to improve consumerism. Today, American consumers drive 70 percent of our economy. Given guidance and information, consumers can make decisions to get what they want. Mr. McCallister noted that Americans understand trade-offs when it comes to price, service, quality, etc. If you look at the rise of IKEA or Southwest Airlines, this is not a new practice. However, to achieve this, there needs to be adequate information on quality and pricing in healthcare that is not available today.
To change that, we need to modernize medicine so that the information is available to consumers and that best practices of care quality and efficiency are leveraged across the board. Information technology adoption and performance of evidence-based medicine (EBM) needs to be accelerated. Mr. McCallister stated that only 14 percent of physicians have electronic medical records, while more than 66 percent of patients use the internet to understand their healthcare. Additionally, he noted that 45 percent of physicians currently do not practice EBM. Ideally, the goal will be to manage data, accelerate development of targeted products and services, and connect stakeholders within healthcare. Overall, standardization within care can lead to value and efficiency. Mr. McCallister pointed out that if we could get Medicare data out to the private sector, imagine the lessons that could be learned and applied across all care (not just government cases).
The future of care will bring new roles for employers, consumers, providers, the government, and payers alike. Mr. McCallister posited the following new roles:
- Payers will compete on value creation for their members
- Providers will compete on a combination of quality and efficiency
- Employers will need to give employees more education and time to choose the right coverage
- More than the 30 minutes on average current Americans take today without much knowledge of care quality or cost
- Plan selection will then trend towards an “FSA + HSA + (Member Dollars/Credit),” with members looking for smart coverage
In summary, major changes are needed, and new roles and information are going to be cornerstones to making this change happen
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