Cloud Technology Overturns IT Assumptions

I'm here to say that healthcare should be thankful it has come late to part of the technology party.

Why? Because healthcare doesn't have to play by the so-called rules that existed a few years ago. Healthcare can challenge the assumptions that drove decisions a short while ago and take advantage of cloud computing technology that overturns the conventional wisdom—and price structure—of IT services.

Want an example? Recently, I spoke to QualSight, a healthcare provider you probably haven't heard of, even though it serves more than 75 million health plan members.

Chicago-based QualSight launched eight years ago to connect independent ophthalmologists to healthcare plan sponsors to provide their members laser vision correction services. Today, the ophthalmologists operating out of 800 locations let QualSight boast of being the nation's largest Lasik services manager.

Surprise number one: The main third-party vendor QualSight uses to process credit cards for payments is PayPal, the eBay subsidiary.

That's right, PayPal is big business now.