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Health Affairs, Vol 19, Issue 6, 57-71
Copyright © 2000 by Project HOPE

Journal Article

Vaporware.com: the failed promise of the health care Internet

Contrary to the claims of its well-financed promoters, the Internet will not solve the administrative redundancies, economic inefficiencies, or quality problems that have plagued the U.S. health care system for decades. These phenomena are the result of economic, organizational, legal, regulatory, and cultural conflicts rooted in a health care system grown from hybrid public and private financing; cultural expectations of unlimited access to unlimited medical resources; and the use of third-party payers rewarded to constrain those expectations. The historic inadequacy of information technology to solve health care's biggest problems is a symptom of these structural realities, not their cause. With its revolution of information access for consumers, the Internet will exacerbate the cost and utilization problems of a health care system in which patients demand more, physicians are legally and economically motivated to supply more, and public and private purchasers are expected to pay the bills.

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