The Long Fix: Solving America's Health Care Crisis with Strategies that Work for Everyone

by Vivian Lee Narrated by Charles Constant

Overview

In The Long Fix, physician and health care CEO Vivian S. Lee, MD, cuts to the heart of the health care crisis. The problem with the way medicine is practiced, she explains, is not so much who's paying, it's what we are paying for. Insurers, employers, the government, and individuals pay for every procedure, prescription, and lab test, whether or not it makes us better-and that is both backward and dangerous.



Dr. Lee proposes turning the way we receive care completely inside out. When doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies are paid to keep people healthy, care improves and costs decrease. Lee shares inspiring examples of how this has been done, from physicians' practices that prioritize preventative care, to hospitals that adapt lessons from manufacturing plants to make them safer, to health care organizations that share online how much care costs and how well each physician is caring for patients.



Using clear and compelling language, Dr. Lee paints a picture that is both realistic and optimistic. It may not be a quick fix, but her concrete action plan for reform-for employers and other payers, patients, clinicians, and policy makers-can reinvent health care, and create a less costly, more efficient, and healthier system for all.

Editorial Reviews

Dr. Leana S. Wen

"This is a well-researched and thoughtful book from one of our nation’s leaders in healthcare reform. Dr. Lee has written a practical guide with actionable solutions for policymakers, healthcare providers, and patients—a must-read!"

Michael O. Leavitt

"In The Long Fix, Vivian Lee M.D. crisply diagnoses the imperative to repair America’s health care system and offers understandable principles as a guide. She lights a path forward by applying lessons and observations from her unique experiences as a physician, health system leader, and now technology executive. This book matters to patients and their families. It matters to Americans who care about the economic future of our nation. It especially matters to government leaders and health care executives we depend on to find strategies that work for everyone."

Booklist

"Lee speaks with authority.... Especially in light of the coronavirus emergency, Lee’s call for everyone to play a role in ‘the Long Fix’ rings true."

Eric Schmidt

"Deeply researched, clearly written, and with a wealth of examples and colorful anecdotes, The Long Fix is necessary reading for anyone seeking to understand—and, more importantly, repair—our ailing healthcare system. Few people have the breadth and depth of Vivian Lee’s experience, and her pragmatic, results-oriented approach offers a compelling and convincing blueprint for doctors, health care professionals, patients, and legislators, on both sides of the aisle."

Robert S. Kaplan

"Dr. Lee has drawn upon her extensive experience and a wide range of physician and administrator colleagues to provide a deep understanding of the ailments plaguing the US health care system, accompanied with practical suggestions for how to remedy them. An excellent overview of the problems and potential solutions."

Karen DeSalvo

"Dr. Lee’s book is an insightful diagnostic look at what is not working in American medicine, and why, that is made compelling by her succinct, practical recommendations for what each of us—policy-maker, consumer, physician/health professional, and payer—can do now to realize the person-centered, high value health care system we all so long for."

Library Journal

05/01/2020

Lee draws upon her experience as a physician and health care administrator to present a plan for remaking the U.S. medical industry. She argues that the current fee-for-service model inflates costs by rewarding the number of tests and procedures performed; currently, doctors have a financial incentive to overtreat patients. She maintains that we would be far better served by paying for results. Care should be standardized based on evidence: which treatments produce the best outcomes? The true cost of procedures and prescriptions should be transparent to patients, she continues, and every aspect of the payment system should be simplified and standardized. Existing electronic health records hold vast amounts of data that should be mined to provide patients with information about which doctors and procedures have the best outcomes for the least cost. Lee presents the Military Health System and the Veterans Health Administration, not Medicare, as the best models for government-managed health care. Each chapter ends with action plans for patients, physicians, payers, and policymakers to improve the nation's health. VERDICT Relevant to all who provide or receive health care in America.—Rachel Owens, Daytona State Coll. Lib., FL

Kirkus Reviews

2020-02-26
Physician, scientist, and health care administrator Lee charts a new and improved system that lowers costs while providing more efficient service.

Lee, president of Health Platforms at Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences), is appalled by the current state of health care in the U.S., where spending is "rapidly approaching $4 trillion per year," far more than in countries that provide universal coverage—and our results are worse. In a nation in which 10% of citizens don’t have or can’t afford health insurance (and millions are underinsured), the landscape is dire: We waste 30 cents of every dollar spent on health care, 20% of medical care is unnecessary, medical errors are the third-leading cause of death, we forego preventative care, and we push high-cost, branded drugs instead of generics. Although Lee sometimes drifts into insurance-speak—"the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement pilot project"—she mostly presents sensible options: "Pay for results instead of action" (collaring costs, predicating fees for results); set expectations of zero tolerance for serious medical errors; giant providers (such as Medicare and the Veterans Health Administration) should negotiate prices; take cues from successful "employer-driven and government-run health systems"; and understand that it will take time to build "on the vital roles that everyone needs to play.” Lee believes that the fee-for-service models undercut doctors’ intrinsic motivations—such as purpose and mastery—and that it is crucial for patients to become fully engaged in their health care. Of particular value are the action plans that conclude each chapter, which contain countless helpful suggestions for patients, consumers, physicians, health care professionals, health care payers, and policymakers. These include tapping into big data (with buffers for privacy), a 10-point plan for employers, and a health system that learns from its results and acts on them.

A health professional turns an experienced eye toward sensible, ground-level actions to make medical care better and cheaper.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177751078
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	07/21/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

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