All Buck, No Bang: A Deeper Look at the US Healthcare System

Abstract

Among other systematic problems, the US suffers from rooted technological issues with medical records that can be remedied; more specifically, electronic health record (EHR) systems are decentralized and are unable to communicate among each other, which increases unnecessary spending in administration and overhead. Secondly, because of concerns about and prevalence of data privacy and breaches, patients are growingly less trusting of their physicians, which contributes to poorer health. As a result, Americans do not receive bang for their buck with regards to healthcare because the amount of money pumped into the system is not positively correlated to the quality of care Americans receive. When looking at previous research in this landscape, many researchers look solely at either a lack of interoperability among EHR systems or poor patient privacy in current databases. However, although these issues are distinct, they are both grounded in technological issues with medical records and could be addressed with the integration of blockchain technology. Through the case study of Intermountain Healthcare and its blockchain company-partner, BurstIQ, this paper will argue that integrating blockchain in healthcare is a promising idea because it is already being explored and has shown success.