Skin in the Game: How Putting Yourself First Today Will Revolutionize Health Care Tomorrow

by Phil Harkins and John Hammergren

While the American health care system has consistently been criticized for its noticeable detriments, few have taken the time to recognize the significant benefits and potential of this system. But... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470262788
• ISBN13: 9780470262788
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 227 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Clear perspectives on a complex subject

As CEO of a large health care services firm, John Hammergren offers his perspective on the problems facing the US health care system. Skin in the Game lays out the case for improving our health care system by empowering the consumer (aka the patient) while leveraging technology and the market dynamics that have driven higher quality and lower costs throughout most other sectors of the American economy. Very few will dispute that the American health care system faces major challenges today: a large population segment without health insurance, quality issues that injure and kill patients, vast inefficiencies in funding and reimbursement, declining ratios of clinicians to patients, etc. The debate over how to address those issues tends to break down into two camps: those who wish to move towards a nationalized system vs those who emphasize the free markets. Skin in the Game lays out a common-sense blueprint for implementing positive changes via technology, the power of free enterprise, and appropriate government engagement. Hammergren starts with a brief history of how health care has evolved in the United States which helps to explain the "why" behind where we are today. Our health system is essentially a grouping of loosely coupled cottage industries that have failed to mature into a modern integrated system. Several explanations are offered for this outcome including government market intervention and the common belief that health care is a "unique" industry which should be sheltered from the free market dynamics driving quality and efficiency across the rest of our economy. Most revealing are comparisons made between typical consumer transactions, buying a car for example, and an encounter in the health care system. With a car purchase, the consumer has ready access to product reviews, safety information, pricing data, and dealer information from a home computer. Prior to taking the first test drive, the would-be buyer can be armed with knowledge to make an educated purchasing decision. What if the same individual finds out that she needs heart bypass surgery? Question arise. What's the best plan of treatment based on outcomes data? What are the viable alternatives? Which hospitals and physicians perform the most bypasses and have the best outcomes? What will everything cost? Try getting answers to those questions on your home PC and you begin to understand how little transparency and customer-focus the health care system has. Despite the issues, there are aspects of the American health care system that are unsurpassed - our capabilities in medical research and treatment innovation, for example. Hammergren points out that any proposed solutions should not hamper or destroy what is already working well. And that, unfortunately, is the probable result of moving to a nationalized health system. Politically, health care reform is garnering even more focus now with each presidential contender putting forth their vision. It is

Fabulous healthcare book!

John Hammergren's "Skin in the Game" is the most realistic approach to healthcare. It is straight forward and easy for anyone to understand regardless of previous healthcare knowledge. I am business undergraduate student and I had limited, previous knowledge on healthcare. Hammergren's book was entertaining and had limited industry jargon. With the upcoming election I believe that it is critical that our future leaders read Hammergren's book. His solution to the healthcare crisis is much more practical and better for the American society than a government regulated nationalized healthcare system that political leaders are proposing. I encourage everyone to read Hammergren's book, he has been in healthcare since his childhood and fully grasps the healthcare industry and truly understands what needs to be done to escape the looming crisis. Anyone who cares about the kind of care they will receive and that of loved ones, I encourage to read the book. It's your health and care that will be affected either way in the coming years and it's important that the right decision is made and by the consumer being fully aware is critical to the decisions that will be made. John Hammergren's book has the solutions that America has been looking for. If you read one book this year, I suggest you read this one, you won't be disappointed!

The perfect book on healthcare

Having been in the healthcare industry for a number of years, before reading this book I would have said that the subject of healthcare reform in the US is simply too large and complex with too many people and issues involved to be addressed in a single book. I would have been wrong. "Skin in the Game" is written in a wonderfully entertaining storyteller style about the medical profession, the drug industry, hospitals, the insurance industry and related technology--their past, their present and their future. The last chapter is incredibly powerful--it offers specific, step-by-step guidelines for how we can solve the healthcare crisis in the US under a free enterprise system. I have had the opportunity to live in the UK and experience first-hand a system of socialized medicine. It is NOT a healthcare system that I ever want to have to bet my life or those of my children on. So I have been searching for a better answer to our problems here in the US for the past few years. I found the answers in this book. And regardless of how anyone who reads it feels about the solutions that are proposed, the Appendix alone is worth buying the book. It is 25 pages of web site references to the most reputable sites to research personal medical problems and issues, and has professional advice and guidelines for advancing your personal health and handling heathcare-related expenses. I recommend that everyone interested in resolving their own or our country's healthcare problems read this book. I also recommend that our political candidates read it and create their healthcare reform platforms according to its recommendations because voters will be demanding to see its very practical and down-to-earth solutions implemented.

Get some skin in the health care game

As Chairman, President and CEO of McKesson Corp., the largest provider of health care supply and information management services in the U.S. and the "largest company that you've never heard of," John Hammergren is uniquely qualified in his understanding of the front and back office workings of the health care industry. In "Skin in the Game," Hammergren talks about what works, what doesn't, and what opportunities exist to make the health care system work like it should. Hammergren's angle is that health care is a marketplace and as such should be driven by demand. However, as the book details, the health care industry does not work effectively as a marketplace for several reasons. Customers don't always have choice of providers or treatments. Pricing, which is often hidden from the customer altogether, is usually driven by things totally outside of the customers' control. Information management is behind the times; this makes errors more likely and industry-standard care difficult to deliver on a consistent basis. And, of course, many of us have a hard time getting the health care that we need at all due to the way that insurance has become so integrated into employee benefits packages and prohibitively priced elsewhere. All of these elements combine to make health care inefficient and to drive up costs all around the industry. Hammergren's solution to this, his vision for giving a streamlined and effective health care market to the consumers, is for private industry -- not the government -- to nationalize the system with shared information, leading-edge technology, algorithmic best-practice standardization, process improvement, emphasis on preventive care, and standardized individual coverage being offered independent of workplace benefits. Under this new paradigm, says Hammergren, all of us will have choice and opportunity within the system. While Hammergren does not downplay the current problems with health care in the U.S, he also paints an optimistic and empowering view of the future if private industry does the right things as he describes them and if the individual consumer steps up to put his or her own "skin in the game" with regards to controlling their own health care future. In describing the present state of health care and its possible future, Hammergren also gives a great deal of historical information about hospitals, doctors, pharmaceuticals, and distributors in the U.S., and he describes in detail some of the nascent technologies and initiatives that he says will revolutionize health care. All of this information is presented in a user-friendly manner and contributes directly to the vision that the book generates. Since McKesson Corp. is a 175 year-old company whose history has mirrored that of health care in the United States, the company is frequently mentioned in context throughout the book but it is not the primary subject. Obviously, health care is a hot-button issue in the United States and many people won't agree w