Care Detours May Be Advisable

Most of us use map apps to help us navigate, such as Google Maps or Waze (which is, ironically, owned by Google).  They help us find our destination, give us step-by-step navigation along the way, help us avoid construction or congested traffic, and even offer tips about nearby restaurants or other points of interest.

Now Google Maps is also helping to identify police activity, including accidents, disabled vehicles, or speed traps.  These features had previously been available on Waze.  

Google, if you are reading this, I have some thoughts about how Maps could help people better find health services.  

Example of Google Maps new features

Certainly people already use Google Maps (or search) to find health care professionals or institutions.  E.g., where's the nearest emergency room or urgent care?  Where is the closest drugstore?  How do I get to Dr. X's office?  Many/most health plan provider directories build a map function into their provider directory as well, so that searches on them can be immediately mapped.  Mapping has become an integral part of our healthcare experience.

But knowing where someone/something is only answers part of what people need to know, even if they don't always realize it.  Here are some features that would make a map app even more useful:

• Delays: It's easy enough to find the closest ER/urgent care, but the closest one may also be the busiest.  Which one is likely to be the fastest to actually see you, taking into account wait time?  Driving an extra 10 - 15 minutes could save hours of waiting.  This kind of information might also steer you to urgent care instead of making an appointment with your doctor.
• Rx prices: GoodRx does a great job of helping people find the lowest cost for prescriptions, steering them to the right drugstores with the right coupons.  Google needs to buy or replicate GoodRx and build these features directly into our searches for drugs or drugstores.  

  

  GoodRx results

• Surprise bills: Despite all the concern about them, and even though they are becoming both more common and more expensive, the likelihood of getting a surprise bill varies widely.  It depends on the state, the specialty, the institution, and the specific healthcare professional.  It would be a great thing to crowdsource where you are most likely to get a surprise bill, for what conditions, then use that information for a map app to warn patients in advance where they are more likely to be hit by them.  
• Conflicts of interest: We don't like to think about it, but some physicians may be receiving money from drug companies or medical equipment manufacturers that could steer them to using their products -- not always in patients' best interests.  Open Payments has this kind of information, but few of us use it.  A Map app could alert us that, hey, this person is getting money from X, so be sure to ask the right questions/get another opinion before taking any recommendations for treatment.  
• Debt collection: Kaiser Health News and ProPublica have done a terrific job of investigating how some hospitals send patients to collections and/or sue them for unpaid bills.  There's something unseemly about usually non-profit hospitals going after (often uninsured/under-insured) patients for bills that weren't disclosed in advance and frequently based on inflated charges.  Few of us keep these kinds of reports top-of-mind when selecting a hospital, but Google could, and that information on a map result could dissuade us from giving them a chance to do the same to us. 
• Outliers: Most of us don't begrudge our doctors from making a good living, but there are some doctors whose income might raise some eyebrows.  Back in 2014 Vox found one doctor who made $21 million in 2012 from Medicare alone.  The top 100 earners made $610 million, with the top 1% getting 15% of all Medicare payments ($11b!).  That's an awful lot of money.  Of course, being such an outlier doesn't necessarily mean they are delivering unnecessary care, or committing fraud, but knowing they were an outlier when you did mapped them might persuade you to get care elsewhere.  
• Volume:  There are varying opinions about whether doing more of specific procedures improves the outcomes, but when you are considering a procedure it is natural to wonder how often your physician has done them.  Is it once a day, once a month, once a year?  Does the person in the next office do more?  Sadly, getting this information currently is virtually impossible, but it is something that could be crowdsourced and built into map results (along with outcomes?)  

Which of these, or other, ideas on Maps might help you with your healthcare decisions?

Some of these are things rely on data that are in the public domain, others are things that require crowdsourcing, both of which Google Maps have experience with.  Some are things that could, and should, be built into health plan provider directories, but I'm pretty sure more of us use (and trust) our map apps than we do our provider directories.  Plus, of course, the more people providing information, the most useful the information becomes.

The police aren't happy about the new Google Maps features, and I suspect healthcare professionals and institutions wouldn't like these kinds of features either.  Tough.  As long as there are provisions for reporting/correcting inaccurate information, all of the above would benefit patients, and that's what healthcare is supposed to be about.  

Google already dominates maps, and is fiercely interested in health, so a combination of the two could benefit us all.  OK, Google?