Here's Another Prescription For Monopolization - What's Going On In Healthcare
HIPPA Hiccups, Career Pivots aren't the only thing going on with healthcare
Hey, Hey, Hello, Hi -
Your Data is dollars.
Even though the value of the dollar is weakening, certain areas will be stronger than it was before.
I’ll talk about how in a few scrolls down.
Even before the pandemic, Healthcare has been going through it. But one of the tweets that I shared recently showed my thoughts that I’ve been wonderings about since roughly 2017 about the monopolization of sectors. Healthcare is another one I feel we are watching unfold.
The pandemic showed how a lot of industries were operating on a skeleton flow before the tissue was running out. One of them being healthcare. Rona Mae took the mast off of key point points in healthcare - from the staffing shortages to the influx of virtual visit options along with how the cost of treatment and some “coverages” were lacking. From case studies to common sense happenings, healthcare was and technically is down bad.
When OneMedical went through a bit of bidding word, we got a sense of who the major players are going to be when it comes to the adaption of the decentralization of healthcare. Amazon didn’t just become a player in healthcare at the time of its acquisition of OneMedical - they have been having a slow build into both health and fitness. While this appears to be a game-changer, it’s showing how Amazon builds in sectors.
I talk about this formula here (link):
The value of data has become gold to many sectors, and Amazon has been churning this data to give them the decision on how to align moving forward. One of the biggest questions around Amazon moving into healthcare was how would HIPPA or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act be applied. This latest article about Amazon Clinic (apply to their whole “health” sector) also confirms how this will roll not only here but in other efforts we will see about healthcare. In short - the ‘HIPAA authorization’ for Amazon’s new low-cost clinic offers the tech giant more control over your health data. This is just them saying that your opt-in will “help coordinate future health care services from Amazon,” because their software is also possible to be used by external health-care providers.
But also I feel that this data will more than likely be used for other LOBs within a conglomerate that is known as Amazon. Yes, this gives access to coverage beyond the marketplace (that has been showing coverage beyond means), along with that, there are more platforms, companies, and healthcare systems that will look to what Amazon is doing and yield profit over patients. Also, the FTC is still investigating Amazon, yes, you read that correctly.
Amazon has always had this stance to “save” its customer money. From the Prime that doesn’t Prime when it comes to shipping. To break down the overall cost of things when it comes to this health portion of the business - $12/month for new OneMedicial patients to their RxPass (which isn’t available for those receiving benefits from state or federal healthcare programs such as Medicaid or Medicare and isn't available in some states). My advice to those considering any platform to obtain healthcare, just like you would do with regular health insurance, audit your health and your wallet: what are you paying for now, what is needed, and could this service or platform benefit “myself” (you), my health, and my wallet? Double down on any authorization that comes with using. Don’t just sign up for the shiny object if you don’t fully get how it will work. Sad that this country doesn’t offer free healthcare yet ignores how people need more affordable coverage.
One of the other players that missed out on OneMedical but grabbed Oak Street, CVS is showing my initial thoughts about it being a fast follower shifting how we see healthcare. This deal was just finalized days ago (don’t forget their acquisition of Signify Health) but seeing their insight into efforts to move omnichannel might be something for folks like you and me to watch for. During their recent earnings, they cited that 50 Million digital customers spend 2.4X more than in-store shoppers. Expand that with data that they gained from their recent acquisitions, this would allow them to build just as strongly as Jeff Bezos’ internet. I talked about all of this a couple of months ago during the massive acquisition boom - in Telehealth, Telewealth.
But all of this acquisition and building monopolization in healthcare is dope, but would it be the key to truly open the door to coverage and healthcare accessibility or would it just confuse people into being seen as profit than people who need healthcare? I link a blog post that I plan on writing about some ways to secure access to various platforms shortly.
There’s data in everything, but watching it become a monopolization in healthcare isn’t what I expected the pandemic to speed up. Profits over patients is nasty work, but it’s leveled into how to seek the best options for you along with being keen on how your data is being dealt out for dollars.