Can acceptance and change coexist in healthcare?

It’s not always easy to accept the healthcare system as it currently exists in the United States. It has been called fragmented, inefficient, inaccessible, discontinuous and not patient centric. Depending on one’s insurance coverage (or lack thereof), it can also be financially toxic to patients and administratively complex for providers, payers and the government.

Yet the benefits for those who utilize the system include mandated emergency care and research-based state-of-the-art procedures not available in all countries. These benefits do not necessarily outweigh the multiple flaws in U.S. healthcare. This leads many to pursue changes in healthcare policy, delivery and payment to make it more affordable, accessible and efficient.

Can we accept the healthcare system in its current form and work to change it? According to dialectical theory, not only is this possible, but dialectics can lead to a better and more satisfying approach to healthcare in the long run. The dialectical method is a philosophical theory going back to Plato and further developed by Hegel. The concept of dialectics is that two opposites can be true at the same time.

A thesis coexists with an antithesis. For example, a prevailing thesis is that healthcare, as it is currently delivered, meets the needs of many patients that receive it. The antithesis is that healthcare is not delivered or financed in a way that provides universal access to necessary care at a reasonable price. Dialectical theory would then suggest that a synthesis can result from these two seemingly oppositive statements and result in an improved system.

Healthcare has undergone its own thesis-antithesis-synthesis process for decades. This happens not only through advances in medicine, but also through policy changes, environmental changes (such as the COVID-19 epidemic), technological changes, financial and delivery system changes, as well as changes in human behavior and expectations.

Advances in data analytics, data visualizations, data science and artificial intelligence in just the past 20 years have allowed physicians, payers and policy makers to identify opportunities for patient segmentation, outreach and quality improvement. Data initially designed to facilitate a fee-for-service healthcare financial transaction is now capable of identifying patients with conditions and healthcare utilization patterns that can be addressed and improved more wholistically. This type of information helps to expose the thesis-antithesis relationship and can eventually lead to a synthesis.

When faced with an unsatisfactory circumstance, such as the challenges patients must face when attempting to access affordable healthcare services, it is reassuring to know that the only constant in life is change. However, while resulting changes may be viewed as positive at first, the synthesis eventually becomes another thesis and the dialectical process continues.

Steve Delaronde is a senior manager of product, regulatory and payer solutions at Solventum.