Applying Precedents Thinking to the Intractable Problem of Transaction Costs in Healthcare

Precedents Thinking — applying past solutions to solve similar problems in a different industry setting — can be applied to what has been the intractable challenge of reducing $265 billion in annual administrative waste in U.S. healthcare. The Precedents Thinking methodology: 1) frames the problem statement and its key elements, 2) searches for prior innovations, “precedents”, that are relevant to one or more of the problem’s key elements, and 3) combines the precedents into the best possible workable solution to the problem. As a result of their findings, the authors propose standardized, modularized digital contracts and the construction of a uniform digital transaction platform.