| Contacts: | Kerry Parke, kparke@hbs.edu, (617) 495-6931 |
|---|
New Book Diagnoses the Crippling of U.S. Health Care System
Prof. Regina Herzlinger Prescribes Consumer-Driven Care
Professor Regina Herzlinger
BOSTON - Harvard Business School (HBS) Professor Regina Herzlinger is widely recognized as the country's leading advocate of consumer-driven health care. Her latest book, Who Killed Health Care: America's $2 Trillion Problem - and the Consumer-Driven Cure (McGraw Hill) stems from her dissatisfaction with the system's slow pace of change, which Herzlinger attributes to a "fat-cat" network. She describes how today's U.S. health care system is structurally set up to reward the major principals - hospitals, health insurers, and lawmakers - while short-changing patients and taxpayers.
In a recent interview with HBS Working Knowledge, Herzlinger observed, "The economic consequences of our present health care system are disastrous and grievously injure the economy. It's not getting any better, and none of the cures work."
In Who Killed Health Care, Herzlinger demands that health care be made more responsive to customers and affordable to those in need. Furthermore, although she sees the industry as a hotbed of innovation and entrepreneurship, Herzlinger also notes its untapped potential because risk takers are discouraged and overpowered by already established players in the market. To counteract that, she outlines a new plan for a consumer-driven system and describes in precise detail how it will cultivate
- smaller, disease-focused medical facilities that provide complete care for patients,
- a national system of medical records that provides privacy with confidential access by approved practitioners,
- mandatory performance evaluations of all hospitals and all other medical organizations, and
- mandatory health insurance with subsidies for those who cannot afford it.
James F. Fries, M.D, Professor of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, calls Who Killed Healthcare a "wonderful Orwellian romp through issues which carry a deadly irony." In addition, he says, "Rarely has the case for the public been made with so much force, foresight, and wit, and a better way forward shown so clearly."
About the Author
Regina E. Herzlinger is the Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. She is widely recognized for her innovative research in health care, including her early predictions of the unraveling of managed care and the rise of consumer-driven health care and health care focused factories, two terms she coined. Modern Healthcare readers have selected Herzlinger as one of the "100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare" each year since 2003, and Managed Healthcare named her one of the field's top ten thinkers. Her research has been profiled in numerous industry journals and business publications such as BusinessWeek. Herzlinger was profiled in The Economist in May 2007 ("Health-care heretic"). Her last book, Consumer-Driven Health Care: Implications for Providers, Payers, and Policymakers (Jossey-Bass, 2004) received the 2004 American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year award for history and public policy.
About Harvard Business School
Founded in 1908 as part of Harvard University, Harvard Business School (www.hbs.edu) is located on a 40-acre campus in Boston. Its faculty of more than 200 offers full-time programs leading to the MBA and doctoral degrees, as well as more than 40 Executive Education programs. For almost a century, HBS faculty have drawn on their research, their experience in working with organizations worldwide, and their passion for teaching to educate leaders who have shaped the practice of business around the globe.