I recently received a box of books from someone I know…well, let me restate that: I received the box minus 2/3 of the books. It seems as if the post office destroyed the box but, instead of putting the rest of the books back in, simply taped the heck out of the box and just kept the rest of the books. Perhaps putting books back in a destroyed box is not part of the job description, while taping up the box is.
It occurred to me that this is a graphic illustration of what commodity healthcare looks like. “We delivered the box. What are you complaining about?!!”
There’s no need to show you a picture of a FedEx box. The chances that it would be damaged are almost nil. If it were damaged, the driver would repackage it and make sure it got to you.
Some people are willing to pay a huge dollar premium to ship FedEx.
Soon, some people will be willing to pay a huge dollar premium to receive non-commodity healthcare.
If you simply want to tape ’em up, then the payoff will be at the commodity level. On the other hand, if you’re interested in providing an Experience Monopoly™ to your patients, and in being paid accordingly, this is the time to seriously strategize for that future.
