Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

There are needs and there are wants; medicine and medical services are a hybrid of the two. We all need these services, but we can choose to defer or bypass them; (unless we get sick or injured). The field of medicine and medical services are different than most industries in this regards, it is NOT a basic need (food, clothing or shelter) but it could mean life or death.

This is duplicitous!

This is why different societies have different levels of healthcare deliveries. In some Third World countries, the Public Health mandate of immunization against communicable diseases (Measles, Mumps, Polio, etc.) may be the only standard. While more advanced democracies provide (or require) full medical coverage for basic, specialty and advanced medical care, even up to treatment for chronic conditions (cancer, diabetes, hypertension, etc.). Health care is important; but not a right everywhere; many times, its a privilege.

Consider dental care …

… it is good to get semi-annual teeth cleaning. But many people do not; and yet their health may not be considered deficient. Many people in Third World countries only go to the dentist for tooth extraction.

So the delivery of health care (medical and dental) is not evenly distributed around the world, around the region, around the nation or even around the community. There are uneven supply factors everywhere.

Even prescription medicine prices are unevenly applied in communities. Depending on the State, health insurance carrier, deductible plan or government benefits status, prices can be scattered all over the dollar scale. The one strategy that seems to work more effectively is the single payer scheme for the government health plan for senior citizens (MediCare in the US).

What can we learn from this experience and how can consumers get a benefit for lower prescription prices?

There is now a new option. From the confusions and duplicities of healthcare and prescription pricing in the US, a new company emerged: Blink Health. They unwittingly seem to be following the mandates of noted Economist Paul Romer in his declaration that “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste”. This enterprise serves as a Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) that contracts pricing directly from the pharmaceutical manufacturer, yet still utilizes the distribution supply of local retailers. This model demonstrates the advantages of GPO’s. Consider their business model in this corporate website review here and accompanying VIDEO:

Company Profile: Blink Health

>>>   01   <<<

The Same Low Price, Everywhere
Blink is the first company that allows you to pay for your prescriptions online and pick them up at your pharmacy.
Accepted at over 60,000 pharmacies nationwide
Blink offers the same low price at every major pharmacy and most independent pharmacies including Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, Target and many more.

>>>   02   <<<

How To Use Blink
No membership fees. Purchases are refundable.
Only pay for the medications you pick up. You can cancel your purchases at any time.

>>>   03   <<<

The Blink Difference
Blink offers the lowest prices on over 15,000 medications and is accepted at more than 60,000 pharmacies nationwide.

—————–

>>>   Our Mission   <<<

Blink is the cure for a disease with immeasurable human cost.

That disease is the high cost of prescription drugs.
A cost that takes its toll on human lives in many ways, not just in money but in health itself.
Our mission is to cure this disease, and to make prescription medications available at lower prices to millions of people across America.

Blink Health is committed to ensuring that no one goes without the drugs they need to live a healthy, happy life.

Whether you have good insurance, bad insurance, or no insurance at all, Blink can save you money at over 60,000 pharmacies nationwide.
We’re the first company to develop a proprietary technology to group millions of patients together, creating the strength to negotiate the lowest drug prices possible.
We’re also the first company to allow patients to purchase their medications online and pick them up at their local pharmacy.

Blink Health believes that lower drug prices are healthier for everyone.

Lower drug prices can put an end to skipping doses or stopping medication altogether.
Lower drug prices put an end to sticker shock at the pharmacy counter.
Lower drug prices mean Americans can take the drugs they’re prescribed without worrying about the cost.

Blink Health believes that no one should have to stress about taking their medications.

Many of the drugs that people need every day have unacceptably high prices.  And yet, in spite of the general outrage at the problem, no one seems to know how much a drug actually costs — or how much it should cost.
At Blink Health, we do.  And we offer this transparency to everyone.  Our product is available to all.  With one low price for everyone, everywhere.
The Blink price is the real price.  And the only one you’ll ever have to pay.
We’re proud to be able to fill this long-overdue prescription for American health, and to finally give Americans the drug prices they deserve.

Blink Health. The cure for high drug prices.

Source: https://www.blinkhealth.com/

VIDEO: NBC News profiles “Blink Health”: The Cure for High Drug Prices

Published on Feb 17, 2016 – Blink Health is the first company to allow patients to purchase their medications online and pick them up at their local pharmacy. Blink uses technology to get you affordable prices on your prescription medications.
Category: People & Blogs
License: Standard YouTube License

The book Go Lean … Caribbean also quotes that “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste” (Page 8); and that there are exigent circumstances throughout the Caribbean region, in so many  fields of endeavor, that constitute crises. The book therefore strategizes the use of GPO’s for many regional acquisitions including medical supplies and prescription drugs. This strategy maximizing the dynamics of “supply-and-demand”. At its very heart, Economics is all about supply-and-demand. The more advanced the exercise in Economics, the more complex the dimensions of the supply-side and the demand-side of a commodity; in the case of Blink Health, prescription drugs. There is BIG money in healthcare and assuredly too, BIG complications in the economic formulas. Yet still, there is more that the Caribbean community can do to optimize our demand, supply and price factors.

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This is a call for confederating, collaborating and convening the 30 member-states of the region into a Single Market; and for one federal governmental entity to optimize the economic, security and governing endeavors. The Go Lean/CU roadmap calls for multiple GPO’s and cooperatives. This is part-and-parcel of the prime directives (3) of the CU/Go Lean roadmap:

• Optimization of the economic engines – accepting that energy is as basic a need as food, clothing and shelter – in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
• Establishment of a security apparatus – including public safety and public health concerns – to protect the resultant economic engines.
• Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The CU seeks to facilitate better mastery of the advanced fields of economics by coordinating pricing, supply and delivery options for the region’s pharmaceutical needs. Public Health stewards will be able to enter into commodities contracts to buy their vaccines, prescriptions and over-the-counter medications days, weeks, months and years in advance. This is the power of the “collective”, or purchasing cooperative, and/or Group Purchasing Organizations.

This commentary asserts that healthcare needs are undeniable to promote a better society. Options abound when the total Caribbean market is leveraged. This is the underlying strategy of the Caribbean Single Market. This point was pronounced from the outset of the Go Lean book in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 & 14), with these statements:

viii. Whereas the population size is too small to foster good negotiations for products and commodities from international vendors, the Federation must allow the unification of the region as one purchasing agent, thereby garnering better terms and discounts.

ix. Whereas the realities of healthcare and an aging population cannot be ignored and cannot be afforded without some advanced mitigation, the Federation must arrange for health plans to consolidate premiums of both healthy and sickly people across the wider base of the entire Caribbean population. The mitigation should extend further to disease management, wellness, mental health, obesity and smoking cessation programs. …

xxx. Whereas the effects of globalization can be felt in every aspect of Caribbean life, from the acquisition of food and clothing, to the ubiquity of ICT, the region cannot only consume, it is imperative that our lands also produce and add to the international community, even if doing so requires some sacrifice and subsidy.

The Go Lean/CU roadmap describes the execution of this GPO strategy as heavy-lifting, but worth the effort. The empowerments from GPO’s will surely impact the macro economy; and will surely impact the micro-economy: healthcare costs will reduce and more jobs will emerge!

The Go Lean roadmap identifies 4,000 new jobs tied to cooperatives, and at least 2,000 new jobs tied to the GPO practice (as a subset of new Health and Trade jobs). These empowerment will impact every aspect of Caribbean life. The Caribbean homeland will then be better to compete globally and present more favorable options for our youth to stay home in the region. We fail miserably at youth options now!

The Go Lean book details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster progress with health and GPO deliveries. The following list applies:

This commentary asserts that healthcare needs are undeniable, but options abound when the rise of the total Caribbean market is leveraged. This is the underlying strategy of the Caribbean Single Market. The Go Lean/CU roadmap describes the execution of this roadmap as heavy-lifting, but this “heavy-lifting” is the charter for the lean, agile CU technocracy.

Many of these heavy-lifting issues have been previously identified and addressed in prior Go Lean blog-commentaries. See here, this list, related to direct and peripheral issues of cooperative strategies for healthcare supply-and-demand and for other industries:

The message to the people of the Caribbean region is that there are solutions to these complex solutions like prescription pricing. Whereas the Caribbean may have been a parasite before, now we can function in the role of a protégé. Change is afoot! Plus, as the foregoing Profile and VIDEO reveals, the American eco-system is defective. We must do better!

Now is the time for all Caribbean stakeholders, to lean-in for the optimizations and empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. Yes, we can make the region a better homeland to live, work, play and heal.  🙂

Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!