Posted on by Phil

My Pinky, and What’s Wrong With Healthcare

I always find it very interesting to hear the story behind just about anything (a business, organization, town, person).  And, I was lucky enough to know some of the “story” behind what was going on with my pinky last weekend.

During a freak kickball accident last weekend (don’t worry, I got the person out), I ended up dislocating my pinky.  After jamming each of my fingers countless times during my wrestling days, it finally took a sunday kickball game in the LES to cause any sort of damage that warranted a trip to the emergency room.

Mistake one was going to the emergency room.  I am well aware of, and actually sought out, urgent care centers in Manhattan.  Unfortunately, none were open on this fateful day.  The sight of my pinky completely mangled urged me to try my luck at the NYU hospital and give up the search for a potentially better alternative.  For the undeducated, urgent care centers are like mini emergency rooms, they are specialized and super efficient so that they get you in and out in an average of 45 mins (ER average is 4 hrs, and 70% of visits can be handled by urgent care, which is also cheaper).  Apparently these business haven’t fully penetrated NYC yet, maybe real estate is a bit too expensive.

So, I spent 5 hours in the ER.  After 2 x-rays, some novocaine, a splint, a lot of time waiting around, I was finally on my way out.  I consumed a lot of resources, and unnecessarily, at that hospital.  But, there was still more to come.

For my little dislocated pinky, that took 45 seconds to relocate after being properly “diagnosed”, I also had to see a hand specialist.  In the days of malpractice paranoia, every precaution is taken, even if it means spending lots and lots of money on people’s pinkies!  The hand specialist of course wanted to do another x-ray.  Did you know medical images are actually transmitted through CD most often?  So, of course, the ER couldn’t send either of my two previous x-rays to the doctor in time for my visit.  Companies like Life Image are trying to solve this by setting up networks through which medical images can be transmitted digitally, but it takes time to fix a broken system.

And, of course, my new doctor owns his x-ray machine, and doctors who own their machines take 5x more x-rays than those who don’t own them.  This is how they make the big bucks.  In fact, an entire industry has popped up with companies like American Imaging Management providing radiology benefit management services.  I got a call from these fine people asking me what the heck was going on with my finger.

But wait, that’s not all.  My new doctor also found some sort of gray mass on the x-ray he didn’t understand and so thinks it’s appropriate to get a CT scan.  This probably brings the total spend on my finger to well over $1,000.  All this for my little pinky that would have been popped back in by a trainer in any sort of scholastic sporting event.  And that is what’s wrong with healthcare!

The only remotely interesting part of the ordeal was seeing several of the emerging companies I’ve run into at Bessemer, or at least the problems they are trying to solve.  At the very least, going to the hospital is a great way to find new investment roadmaps!

99 Replies to “My Pinky, and What’s Wrong With Healthcare”

  1. Sorry to hear about your ordeal! Healthcare is such a humongous and intricate industry that’s further complicated by stakeholders with currently very different motives (e.g., the balance between economics and well being). It’s amazing to know that despite these huge challenges, there are still people starting companies to try and improve on our current system. Props to them!

    1. Thanks Lin.  It’s interesting that so much opportunity seems to exist in the ecosystem given the lack of efficiencies.  Of course, selling to payers, providers, or patients is very tough and thus hard to build a business!

  3. As a result of the Affordable Care Act, Special care clinics are a big focus of buy-out firms.

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