More than 30 senior executives from healthcare organizations across the U.S. discussed different perspectives on a variety of topics at the annual Huron Healthcare CEO Forum.
According to the report, "Leading the Journey: Cultivating Success in Healthcare," risk and reward, population health and consumerism were focal points for the CEOs during the forum.
Risk and reward: Collaboration and identifying new partnerships will become critical as patient volumes decline and consumers voice higher expectations regarding cost, quality and care experience, the CEOs discussed.
"The payment model is growing more complex at the same time the payer mix is changing," said Jeff Jones, managing director of Huron Healthcare. "We are in an environment where the collective actions that lead to improved cost and quality require close leadership attention and strategic management."
This year will also mark a period of changing leadership needs. Charles Evans, president of the International Health Services Group and senior advisor at Jackson Healthcare, said, "In innovative and emerging markets, waiting for stability is no longer a viable pathway. There needs to be a sense of urgency and an entrepreneurial spirit."
Population health: As hospital and health system executives prepare to transition from managing episodes of care to taking responsibility for population health, they are developing strategies to increase use of data analytics, determining new potentially necessary partnerships and identifying needed infrastructure changes.
According to the report, forum participants agreed successful population health management programs will depend on aligning physicians, building trust, instituting case management, preparing IT systems and developing data analytics capabilities, as well as other challenges.
Consumerism: The increase of consumerism in healthcare — or prospective patients "shopping" for healthcare — will increase the need for hospitals and health systems to become more competitive to maintain market share.
Many executives spoke about the growing influence of consumers, according to the report.
"For every strategy we have, at some point in this decade consumers will take charge. Consumerism will be the new normal and there will be nowhere to run and nowhere to hide," said Keith Pitts, vice chairman of Tenet Healthcare Corporation.
Joseph Swedish, president and CEO of Anthem, said his organization is already making the transition to better cater to growing consumerism.
"As a payer, we are pivoting from the B2B world to B2C," he said. "The center of the universe has changed. The consumer is now the center."
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