Careful with your healthcare, there...

Yesterday, I was thinking about the tricky state of healthcare economics and incentives, from the point of view of payers and providers. The issue was that Blue Cross of CA is giving doctors incentives to use ambulatory care resources (endoscopy centers instead of hospitals) to ease the cost of patient care. The California Hospital Association fired back with a lawsuit claiming that such incentives violate the provision that financial concerns should not cloud doctors' vision or response to critical patient care.

Today I read about another progressive "solution" to the challenge of delivering high-quality, cost-effective healthcare to consumers -- a news report that McKesson Acquires RelayHealth. Listen to this:

McKesson also announced a new Personal Health Solutions group within its Provider Technologies segment. Personal Health Solutions will serve the growing market for interactive technologies that empower consumers and patients through secure electronic access to healthcare providers, personal health records, healthcare financial management systems and other tools. The group will leverage McKesson's broad-based strengths in disease management services across the entire continuum of care, from hospitals and outpatient facilities to physician offices and into the home. In addition to RelayHealth, McKesson's personal health solutions include in-home patient monitoring, Web portal technology, triage software and personal emergency response systems, to name a few.

Now, here's the conundrum:

If my insurance carrier offers me and my caregivers incentives to use new technologies, such as patient-physician portals for online, interactive visits and treatment, is there a chance some hospital association is going to sue me for threatening my own well-being?

I think The Healthcare Mess is a mess because we really don't understand incentives well enough among payers, providers, and consumers.

Or, then again, maybe we understand them all too well...