After Covid fades away, the 800 pound gorilla - a broken healthcare delivery system - will still be in the room.
Considering the failing grade on our health care system given by Americans in the recent AP-NORC poll, the question begs to be asked: Why must the American public endure this only to have lip service paid to it every four years at the time of a general election? The people of this country deserve better. My book "Modern Healthcare Delivery, Deliverance or Debacle - a Glimpse From the Inside Out," has been hailed by BookAuthority.org, the world's leading site for book recommendations by thought leaders, as one of the "12 Best New Health Care Delivery Books To Read For 2022." The 350 pages with over 500 references to support the positions taken represent over four years of research and writing on my part. The reader is introduced to many of the relevant milestones that have occurred in healthcare delivery during the past fifty years, as well as some of their unintended consequences. Problems currently faced are discussed and potential solutions provided.
With healthcare costs now approaching 20% of GDP, sound bites and snippets from "pundits," unfortunately all too common, are just not going to cut it. We are facing a financial debacle in healthcare, and yet just continue to kick the can down the road. As H.L. Mencken once said, "For every complex problem, there is a solution which is simple, direct and wrong" - truly words of wisdom when applied to Healthcare Delivery.
While everyone ostensibly someday will be a patient, for many, that exposure is intermittent, often skewed and largely gleaned from the outside looking in. For those who dare, Dr. Zema provides a glimpse of healthcare delivery seen from the inside, looking out, affording his readers additional insights whereby they may navigate outside their comfort zone while achieving a broader perspective of the overall healthcare delivery system. The American people cannot be a part of the healthcare delivery solution until they fully understand the problem.
MICHAEL J. ZEMA MD, FACP, FACC, CPE, CSSG has enjoyed a tenure of forty plus years in the healthcare arena on the “inside” as physician trainee; private practitioner; member of a Hospital Medical Board; Vice President of a Physician Independent Practice Association; Board Member of a Physician Holding Company; Pharmaceutical Industry and Malpractice Legal Consultant; Chief of Cardiology at both community hospital and academic medical centers; Professor of Medicine at two State University Colleges of Medicine; and Physician Clinical Reviewer for a large national Radiology Benefits Manager. Having operated in all of the above "silos," at one time or another, unlike so many of today's so-called "pundits," Dr. Zema has indeed walked the walk and not merely talked the talk and as such is uniquely qualified to debate healthcare delivery providing a glimpse from the inside out.
