When Health Policy Gets Personal

Like most Health Affairs readers, I spend large parts of my day reading about, thinking about, and advocating for changes to health care. The flaws with our system are beyond obvious by now: access can be limited or nonexistent; health care costs too much; quality and safety are not guaranteed; care is not well coordinated; and, disparities are stubbornly hard to erase. We compare ourselves to other industrialized nations—usually unfavorably—and wonder why we can’t be more like them, spending less and getting better outcomes. We celebrate mind-boggling scientific and medical advances but lament that they are too expensive and out of reach for many people. I could go on and on. We also have a long list of encouraging remedies and experiments to fix or improve this broken system. Some trendy things come and go, and the acronyms change (or multiply!), but a lot of genuinely promising approaches are being tried. Patient-centered medical homes, for example, have been touted and evaluated as one way to improve care and lower costs. Value-based insurance designs have been championed as a way to encourage more of the “right” kind of care and less of the “wrong” kind. Intensive care management programs are being applied with more precision to patients with complex and costly conditions. Care transition programs can reduce the likelihood of unnecessary readmissions. Payment reforms that put providers at financial risk are on the front burner. Again, I could go on ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Costs and Spending Featured Health Professionals Quality electronic medical record fee-for-service patient experience patient-centered care Physicians Primary Care value based care Source Type: blogs