The U.S. healthcare industry is currently undergoing what will ultimately be a radical transformation, driven by unsustainable cost increases, increased regulation, and shifting power relationships among payers, providers, physicians, and patients.
The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is just the first of many steps intended to reshape the U.S. healthcare system. While virtually all stakeholders agree with the overall objective of healthcare reform – achieving better health outcomes at lower cost – there are many different views on how best to achieve it.

One point of agreement is that the way we pay for healthcare today is not aligned with our reform objective. The current fee for service system does not reward providers for improving quality or lowering costs, but instead unintentionally encourages the inefficient use of resources and even waste. The concept of “bundled pricing” is gaining momentum as a reimbursement model more aligned with reform objectives.