Let's Save Health Care in Three Easy Steps

Conceptually, saving US health care is not hard. All we need are three short steps.

1. Put all health care providers: doctors, surgeons, primary care, specialists, hospitals, clinics, chiropractors, test centers, shamans, witch doctors, and mental health professionals in a single, national, managed medical network. All patients see providers in this network.
2. Manage the care provided by the network to assure appropriate care using human and digital IT resources. Management is part of the medical community, not payers.
3. The network pays providers fairly and promptly and bills the insurers at cost with a small management fee.

Voila! When care provided is appropriate, the cost is rational. Only then should we consider cuts or limitations to care.