siliconindia | | DEC 2019 - JAN 20208IN MYOPINIONData Sharing Paves the Way for Universal Registration, and Ties in to Insurance TransparencyMy parents live in Kerala, South India. I live in the US. What this translates to is a minimum of one yearly international trip to visit them. We decided some time ago that exposing my decidedly American offspring to their Indian heritage would pay dividends later on in life in terms of opening up their world-view. Also, my parents would disown me if they couldn't regularly anticipate hugging their grandkids every so often.Over the years the task of trying to keep in touch with folks at work while my family and I take our two-to-three-week break has become increasingly easier. And yet I came to accept that if I wanted to use my regular cell phone, it was going to entail a series of phone calls and roaming-plan adjustments with their various additional fees. Regardless of how peachy everything would seem at the outset, the final result would be a bill that left me scratching my head in disbelief.So then I read about this thing called Project Fi (now called Google Fi). Google Fi is Google's version of a cell phone carrier. It offered me two coveted things: flat rates and global roaming. And just for giggles, they threw in incremental refunds for unused data.The real icing on the cake for me was the fact that a flat pricing model had been negotiated with carriers in 200 countries around the world. You know, because it's Google. The thought of being able to take my phone off airplane mode upon landing in a new country and instantly have access to cellular service 1) at LTE network speeds, and 2) at the "exact same rates" I pay back home ­ was just too enticing. So I decided to take the plunge. We typically travel to Cochin, India and landing there I was more than pleased to see the phone, upon being awakened from airplane mode, track down a network, offer me a nice "Welcome to Cochin from Google Fi" message, and reassure me that none of my data rates were changing in the slightest. Everything just worked! Google Maps and GPS worked flawlessly, I received calls and voicemails and sent texts as if I were still in the US. Even my Nike running app had no difficulty mapping out my beautiful morning hill run in the small township where my parents live. Pure joy.Google had cracked the cellular price transparency code while simultaneously giving me the gift of effortless cellular data access as a moderately frequent global traveler.Which brings us (admittedly in a long-winded fashion) to my world of healthcare. Clinical integration seems to be a buzzword these days, and my experience with Google Fi seemed to crystalize some of the frustrations that our patients deal with when systems suffer from a distinct lack of integration.Regardless of how well-meaning healthcare systems are, the simple fact remains that large, complex organizations often have large, equally complex payment structures that need to be navigated. Here are some of the frustrations that I and other chief medical officers I've talked to hear from patients from time to time: When I need a physician, there are multiple hoops I have jump through to secure an appointment. Assuming I can get an appointment in a timely manner, I have to go through a registration process, seemingly multiple times. At times my insurance covers certain services, at times it doesn't. I never know what to expect from the bill. The bill is written in a way that I cannot understand. Occasionally, I have to call and contest a bill or ask for a rebate, but mostly, I just give up and pay. When I'm referred to a new provider, this triggers another round of registrations and permissions.By Arun Mathews, Chief Medical Officer, MultiCare Health System Arun Mathews
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