The phrase "consumer driven healthcare" (CDHC) is heard more and more these days, making its way into "mainstream media". Consumerism is proposed as a solution for saving our ailing healthcare system.

But too often the term is used to refer to the new healthcare financing instruments: Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and High Deductible Health Plans (HDHP). The controversy swirling over HSA/HDHP has had the effect of turning consumerism into a dirty word in many quarters.

This is unfair and confusing. To set the record straight, I would like to propose a better definition of CDHC:

Consumer driven healthcare (CDHC) is a healthcare system that encourages consumer awareness, informed choice and decision-making based on open, transparent and credible information. This information includes availability, relevance, quality and pricing of healthcare services, healthcare providers and financing plans. CDHC empowers consumers to take greater control of and achieve greater satisfaction from their healthcare experience. Providers of healthcare offerings shall be considered "consumer driven" if they are commited to publically releasing the information relevant to facilitating the consumer choice.

In other words CDHC is about offering the consumers a helping hand in navigating the maze that is our healthcare system. Achieving this requires a real commitment to treating healthcare consumer as customers are treated in any other industry.

Under this definition, HSA/HDHP could help move us closer to consumer-driven healthcare, but are neither necessary nor sufficient. The more critical factor is openness of information, rather than a particular design of a financing system: "Open Medicine vs. Single-Payor Healthcare".

So whenever you hear anyone professing to be "consumer-driven", be sure to check how they measure up against the definition.