My healthcare provider recently sent me an email suggesting that if my Medical Insurance had changed I could go online and update my information. At first sight this would seem like a progressive step, I can keep my records up to date, but as I thought about this offer it reminded me that the whole process of insurance is littered with friction points and bumps in the road.

 Just this simple piece of information provides some minute friction points. First you have yet another critical piece of information that has be stored somewhere so that you can access it. You have to take the time to fill in the information either online or engage in a dialog when you go to visit your doctor. 

There is the possibility that the information can be corrupted in transfer.

Hopefully you’re never in an accident but if you are and you need emergency treatment you or someone close to you will need to fairly quickly provide the information to ER and possibly other emergency services.

In the big picture of healthcare this is less than a very minor friction point but it does make you wonder why something as apparently straightforward as this can’t be simplified.