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Sachin H. Jain/LinkedIn

Feb 12, 2025, 16:42

Sachin H. Jain: “Normalizing the abnormal” describes the broken current state of American healthcare

Sachin H. Jain, President and CEO of SCAN Group and Health Plan, posted on LinkedIn:

“I use the expression ‘normalizing the abnormal’ to describe the broken current state of American healthcare.

Here are a couple of abnormal behaviors we have normalized:

Introducing waits and delays to care through prior authorization when someone’s life is on the line. Prior authorization may be necessary to manage costs and quality – but it doesn’t need to take weeks/months. What about setting a 24 hour standard? Healthcare isn’t meant to be a never-ending game of ping pong with doctors and health plans arguing about care.
High deductible health plans. Health insurance companies introduced these plans to promote greater stewardship of healthcare dollars. Good idea in theory. Except the lack of first-dollar coverage leaves many people feeling like they have no coverage so they avoid accesssing healthcare altogether.
Out-of-network professional billing for in-network facilities. The idea that you can go to an in-network facility and be treated by a doctor who is out-of-network and receive a huge bill for it on the other side is one that defies basic consumer standards. It’s something abnormal that we normalized.
Healthcare’s obscene focus on documentation to get paid. It’s one thing to write a complete note for clinical purposes. But there has to be a better, simpler way to bill for clinical services than the system we have in place.

What’s something abnormal you’ve observed in US healthcare that we have normalized?”