Why Not Better and Cheaper? : Healthcare and Innovation

Why doesn''t healthcare get better and cheaper like the cell phones we carry in our pockets? In this book, James B. Rebitzer and Robert S. Rebitzer argue that it''s because the healthcare system generates the wrong kinds of innovation. Further, they show that incentive contracts, professional norms, social narratives, and the nature of competition and disruption in the health sector conspire against cost-reducing innovation. The book not only sheds new light on the trajectory of innovation in healthcare, but it also highlights how we can point innovation in a better direction to deliver more value to patients and society.

An engaging account of innovation in healthcare and why the results fall short for patients and society.The evolution of the cell phones we carry in our pockets demonstrates that quality can increase while prices fall. Why doesn''t healthcare also get better and cheaper? In Why Not Better and Cheaper?, James B. Rebitzer and Robert S. Rebitzer offer an answer to this question. Bringing together research on incentives, social norms, and market competition, they argue that the healthcare system generates the wrong kinds of innovation. It is too easy to profit from low-value innovations and too hard to profit from innovations that reduce the costs of care. The result is a healthcare system that is profusely innovative yet remarkably ineffective in discovering ways to deliver increased value at lower cost. Why Not Better and Cheaper? sheds new light on the trajectory of innovation in healthcare, and how to point innovation in a better direction.