The American Medical Association (AMA) recently called for a total ban on direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertising, saying the industry’s well-funded campaigns sway patients towards newer and more expensive drugs and away from older but affordable and effective treatments like generics.

In the near future, emerging delivery systems and payment models, such as pay-for-performance, bundled payments, and capitated payments, will stress current volume-based fee-for-service systems.

Earlier this year, I spent a week learning about US Health Policy at The Washington Campus, which provided an inside view of Washington DC, through lectures from members of congress, health policy advisors, officials from the department of Health and Human Services, attorneys from Federal Trade Commission, and numerous experts from think tanks.

The US healthcare system serves a rapidly expanding elderly population undergoing increasingly complex medical care shifted to an outpatient clinic environment. The resulting prolonged waiting time limits quality, patient and employee satisfaction, and represents waste.