Convenience care, telemedicine and breaking down barriers to geographic competition – a speculation
A few problems Geographic barriers to the entry have long protected providers from best-in-class competition. Provider consolidation – theoretically a logical response to the current operating environment — reinforces these barriers by locking up referrals and making systems too big / too few to fail. Instead of pushing providers aggressively on value, payers and regulators may end up nursing underperforming systems (e.g. Highmark’s bail-out of the West Penn Allegheny system) and discouraging disruptive entrants for fear of unintended damage to the stability of the local provider infrastructure. Even if consolidation is