alt Hacker NewsI understand the concerns and I am not sure I would allow myself to be recorded until I knew more.
However, I do think we are in a situation where everybody knows that healthcare costs need to come down that doctors and medical professionals are spread too thin, forced to see evermore patients in the same number of hours, and yet for every attempt to improve efficiency there is a “no, not that way“ response.
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I definitely agree that medical professionals are spread too thin and automation seems like it would be a boon but, as the article points out, the introduction of automation likely won't translate to more doctor-patient time it'll translate to doctors seeing more patients.
The solution not only introduces a problem (decreased privacy) but could reinforce the existing problem it's trying to solve.
"healthcare company lowers cost instead of absorbing new found profits" sounds like an Onion headline
> I do think we are in a situation where everybody knows that healthcare costs need to come down that doctors and medical professionals are spread too thin
The problem is over optimization AND lack of people. As soon as there's an excuse for less staff because we have "digital record keeping" we're going to have less money and even less staff.
Having in person or remote notetakers is a great entry level job to do before you become a doctor. It could be boring but at least the terms are familiar and you get to know the person you're working with.
It's not like healthcare is an impossible problem to solve that needs more tech, we just refuse to spend money on people and (inexplicably) cannot help but dump tons of money into tech.
Yes, and also almost all of these issues could be ascribed to all digital medical record-keeping. The fact that AI transcribed it matters relatively little.
One massive way to reduce healthcare costs is to remove caps from becoming a doctor; as long as you pass the tests and meet the requirements, why are we turning doctors away? So that existing doctors can be paid well above the market rate. There's a reason there's so many doctors in politics - it's very important for them to protect this business model.
Is that why healthcare costs are up, or is it because of the insurance mafia?
How do you know it's not the other way around? Give consent to incorporate another technology that will keep wages the same but allow them to treat more patients and extract more profit for the shareholders?
How about this:
1. I have health insurance
2. The point of insurance is they're supposed to pay for shit
3. You figure out how to get them to pay for shit, sign an agreement that removes me of any patient responsibility of the balance bill, and assure me in writing that I will owe $0 no matter what
Then you can record me.
> for every attempt to improve efficiency there is a “no, not that way“ response
They've tried everything except "train and hire more doctors" and they're just all out of ideas aside from "erode patients rights and lower overall quality of care"
yes, this!
If I paid all my doctors $1200/hr and doubled how much time they spend with or on me, that'd still pale in comparison to healthcare expenditures attributed to me between actual insurance payments and actual money leaving my bank account. Doctors being spread too thin is very much a separate issue.