Jimmy's Story: Forging a New Path for American Healthcare

"Healthcare is not working for the people who need it." As the author states in the Introduction, it is vital to forge a new path for American healthcare, starting with the physician-patient relationship as the fundamental building block for reform. By combining elements of memoir and patient advocacy, Dr. Pender traces the progress in medicine of his fictional grandson, Jimmy, while he proposes a blueprint for a new model of care. Bypassing what the author calls the "Big Players" in healthcare-health insurance companies, pharmacy benefits managers and hospital systems-a replacement model emerges that emancipates doctors and nurses from the shackles that strip caregivers of their agency for patients. Avoidable cost is removed from the system once the toll takers in healthcare are replaced by an operating system that supports transparency for prices and fiduciary responsibility for plan sponsors. Under the "Our Town" model for middle market self-insured employers, employees and their families, the path forward is established, much like the early maps of the New World for explorers centuries ago. The five parts of the journey to better healthcare are described in an analogy to sailing, whereby the main characters face extraordinary challenges before returning to land successfully. The end result is better health and better experience at lower cost."Before driving back home, I said a silent prayer of thanks for my good fortune and for the future of medicine."-Paul Pender, MD, Author of Jimmy's Story