Healthcare is an industry in transition, being slowly prodded along by ever-increasing public scrutiny over cost and quality. Unfortunately, this transitory phase feels endless, as the obvious solutions—ending fee-for-service and connecting payments to outcomes—seem to remain forever out of reach.
Progress toward the implementation of population health as a model for organizing healthcare delivery appears to have stalled in 2018. Unfortunately, that’s the key finding from Numerof’s fourth annual State of Population Health survey, which revealed that organizations are well behind where, two years ago, they thought they’d be – especially…
The writing is on the wall: Today’s health care system is antiquated and inefficient, and industry leaders can’t shy away from change. Alongside local, state and federal officials, consumers and business owners outside the health care sector are demanding answers — questioning outrageous hospital bills and prescription drug prices, plus wondering why they…
Historically, the incentives built into fee-for-service (FFS) payment models actually encouraged providers to ignore social determinants of health (SDH) that impact health outcomes. For example, providers were financially rewarded when “frequent flyers” were readmitted, and it was easy to rationalize such factors as “out of scope”. Ignoring vulnerable populations’ socioeconomic…
Episode-based (bundled) or capitated payment for delivery of quality care across multiple providers can be a significant stimulus of lower costs and improved clinical outcomes. Implicit in such approaches is that it incentivizes better care coordination and cost-effective decision making. The flip side of this equation is, of course, that…
Understanding what population health means and how to get there will be critical for all specialties. However, the recent launch of the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement initiative, the first compulsory bundled payment program coming out of CMS, amplifies the need for the orthopaedic community to understand what it means…
