Paradox and Imperatives in Health Care

The Paradox: Americans are not as healthy as people in dozens of comparable countries that spend 30 percent less on health care, and our medical marketplace overall is plagued by persistent problems of cost, quality, and access. Yet, the world’s best individual health systems are located in the U.S.—each a unique result of visionary leadership and private initiative, not government-driven health reform.

The Imperatives: Due to powerful new forces explained in this book, medical spending has stopped growing. Purchasers, payers, and patients are no longer willing or able to keep paying more. To stay in business and improve population health, providers and their business partners must eliminate the shameful waste generated by inefficient and ineffective production processes.

The Solution: Simply repairing or repealing the Affordable Care Act will not get us where we want to go. The fundamental roadblock is a wasteful system, not uninsured Americans. Reform needs to be immediately redirected to creating the best health care system that 17 percent of GDP can buy. Money saved by taking the new path to reform can then be used to improve population health through access for all. Paradox and Imperatives in Health Care is the roadmap for getting there.

• Supplies updated perspectives on health care’s problems and solutions
• Details the reasons why government-driven reform does not solve problems
• Provides a justification for regulatory relief tied to performance improvement
• Suggests specific new policies for a better approach to desired outcomes
• Presents content written expressly for busy executives and policy makers

Dr. Jeffrey C. Bauer is an internationally recognized health futurist and medical economist. As an independent industry thought leader, he forecasts the evolution of health care and develops practical approaches to improving the medical sector of the American economy. He is widely known for his specific proposals to create an efficient and effective health care delivery system through multistakeholder partnerships and other initiatives focused in the private sector.

Dr. Bauer has published more than 250 articles, books, web pages, and videos on health care delivery over the past 45 years. He speaks frequently to national and international audiences about key trends in health care, medical science, technology, information systems, reimbursement, public policy, health reform, and creative problem solving. Dr. Bauer is quoted often in the national press and writes regularly for professional journals that cover the business of health care. His latest book is Upgrading Leadership’s Crystal Ball: Five Reasons Why Forecasting Must Replace Predicting and How to Make the Strategic Change in Business and Public Policy (Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FL, 2014). Other recent books include Paradox and Imperatives in Health Care: How Efficiency, Effectiveness, and E-Transformation Can Conquer Waste and Optimize Quality (with Mark Hagland; Productivity Press, New York, 2008) and Statistical Analysis for Health Care Decision-Makers (CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2009). His two previous books are Telemedicine and the Reinvention of Health Care: The Seventh Revolution in Medicine (with Marc Ringel; McGraw-Hill, New York, 1999) and Not What the Doctor Ordered (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1998).

As a consultant, he has assisted hundreds of provider, purchaser, and payer organizations with strategic planning and performance improvement. He served as industry thought leader for the Superior Consultant Company and (after acquisition) as vice president for health care forecasting and strategy for ACS, a Xerox Company, from 1999 to 2010. His previous consulting firm, The Bauer Group, specialized in consumer-focused strategic planning and development of clinical affiliation agreements for multihospital networks from 1984 to 1992.

In addition, Dr. Bauer has extensive academic experience. He was a full-time teacher and administrator at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver from 1973 to 1984, where he held appointments as associate professor and as assistant chancellor for planning and program development. He also served concurrently for four years as health policy adviser to Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm. From 1992 to 1998, Dr. Bauer was a visiting professor in administrative medicine at the Medical School of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he taught physician leaders how to evaluate research reports and other published studies. Prior to his career in health care, he worked on meteorology projects for the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He received his PhD in economics from the University of Colorado–Boulder.

He graduated from Colorado College in Colorado Springs with a B.A. in economics and completed a certificate in political studies at the University of Paris (France). During his academic career, he was a Boettcher Scholar, a Ford Foundation Independent Scholar, a Fulbright Scholar (Switzerland), and a Kellogg Foundation National Fellow. He is an elected member of the Association of Managers of Innovation and the Institute of Medicine of Chicago and is an honorary Fellow in the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. Dr. Bauer lives in Chicago, where he occasionally displays his paintings in local art galleries. He is an avid fan of music and member of the Governing Board of the Chicago Symphony Association.