Health care, Mayo Clinic style

Mention Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic and Clarian Health in the same breath, and you have a front-page
story, which is just what reporter J.K. Wall wrote in this weekâ??s IBJ.

Clarian is moving ahead with plans to mimic the legendary hospitals in Minnesota and Ohio by hiring as many as 1,500 of its
own doctors.

Clarian says patients would receive better care because doctors would have more incentive to communicate with each other.
Currently, thereâ??s little financial incentive for doctors to send e-mails or talk over the phone because the government and
health insurers wonâ??t pay for it.

Better communication also minimizes unneeded tests and procedures, which leads to another reason Clarian wants to bring doctors
in-house.

Cost savings now hit bottom lines of health insurers, not hospitals. Clarian downplays the notion, but the hospital in some
cases probably will marginalize insurers and pocket the savings. Imagine a future in which Clarian deals directly with larger
employers, like Mayo does.

What do you think? Will you actually get better care under the new system, which Clarian wants to take statewide? Would the
system help Clarian become prominent outside the state?