As we as a nation embark on what is likely the most bi-partisan of major, national spending issues, we should pause and evaluate what the healthcare reform effort will look like a decade down the road.

Three possible images come to mind: a “bandaid” reform that rushed financial healthcare aid to many Americans, including lots of folks that received much needed treatments and basic coverage for the first time; a “bailout” reform that sent new, expanded funding to many very capable providers to expand delivery of services through old, often outdated paper-based channels; or a “truly transformed” new health system that used technology and information exchange to change the course of quality, choice and actual health of Americans for generations to come. 

Bandaid health reform won’t be recognized as such immediately.  That is because, as with the $50 billion-plus in new mortgage safety nets that today allow at-risk and challenged mortgagees to quickly get a preferred rate, unless root-cause regulatory reforms are integrated with better consumer risk education and lender practice restrictions, life will return to “normal” soon enough. The next crisis will repeat itself in at least a generation or two. 

Healthcare bandaid reform will get more people involved via new program enrollment, more flexible and seamless entre to services, and comforting treatment and coverage for many that have been without. But it can become devastating for many who don’t recognize that preventive diseases are just as likely to affect them personally without consumer education that affects personal choice and responsibility. It can eventually become devastating for consumers and government alike who may not be able to keep up with sustainable funding if costs continue to skyrocket. And it will inevitably be disappointing to the insured millions if quality recedes into a system that ultimately rations services. 

Bailout health reform would look a bit like our recent manufacturing and banking industries stressed out by over-commitment in better times, not recognizing that global competition may well have changed quarterly cost-side projections forever. There will always be a cheaper source but all too often it may not be in America. 

Bailed out healthcare stakeholders will be the ones who accept the corporate stimulus in one form or another—mostly reimbursement incentives—but do not fundamentally improve their business practices to reduce costs while maintaining or improving quality. They will refrain from offering full-transparency and more choices to their patients that could result in more and broader cost savings up and down the health-care chain. They will cite “privacy” and “safety” as barriers just like old paper-based banking, credit and tax industries did 20 years ago. 

Many wonderful, high-quality healthcare providers and insurers may well benefit from new stimulus and “reform” spending without adopting and integrating cost-saving Health Information Technology (HIT) and Health Information Exchange (HIE). These initiatives already identified by President Obama and many in Congress to cut an estimated $2 trillion in redundant and inefficient health spending. They include broad adoption and interoperable sharing of secure electronic medical records, personal e-health records, and electronic prescriptions. The mid-term benefits in each of these areas will enhance millions of lives while saving tens of billions of dollars each year. Leaders from across the industry together with Obama are growing closer than ever to collaboration and compromise on the funding and saving side of the reform equation. 

Truly reformed healthcare in America will look and feel like a flourishing industry where patients, doctors and families alike participate in and appreciate every decision. It will focus on consumer choice that immediately compares each individual’s current state to that of millions of others via statistically relevant data comparisons of clinical, cost, risk and options with the chosen doctor facilitating open, transparent discussion. It will include individualized cradle-to-grave consumer health education that focuses on prevention, safety and lowering individual risk, and will include interoperable personal medical and health records used at every decision interval. 

Patients need ready access to the information they need to effectively manage their healthcare. A secure electronic health information infrastructure will not only

transform care delivery, but also enable each of us to more effectively measure and improve quality, better manage chronic conditions, personally monitor safety and public health threats, and help us better understand which treatments work best for specific diseases and conditions.

This open transparency will be attractive only if it is secure and private to the level of the current credit and financial systems that house millions of private individual histories.  This security and privacy will be better—not worse—than the current paper-and-film records we see unprotected up and down the halls of our providers each time we visit. 

In order to advance high quality and lower costs, we must integrate HIT and HIE to modernize the “modern” medical office. Personal medical, health, drug, coverage and prevention records should be on-line for every visit anywhere. It will be through each citizen’s active participation in asking for and selecting the personalized value combination of quality, prevention, coverage, and competitive pricing that will allow innovation and competition to continue to raise quality standards while offering competing options in every price range.

Truly reformed and transformed healthcare will offer affordable and accessible high-quality value for every American. It will begin and end with every citizen’s fully-engaged participation and satisfaction, and judged as satisfactory by the next generation tax-paying consumers.

Robin R. King has over 20 years of senior-level organizational management experience directing strategy-led, national organizations in economic communications, government relations, policy issues management, and brand strategy for organizational growth.