The authors, David A. Asch, MD, and Kevin Volpp, MD, professors of medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and professors of healthcare management at the Wharton School, argue that three key “signals” suggest patients’ demands for health are coming to a head and will forever change the business of healthcare.
1. A growing body of research suggests health is socially influenced and not completely biological. “An enormous body of literature supports the view that differences in health are determined as much by the social circumstances that underlie them as by the biologic processes that mediate them,” write the authors.
2. Improved measurement and reporting suggests that all providers are not created equal. “In the past there was some implicit presumption that doctors and hospitals provide healthcare of consistently high quality, that presumption is now being challenged, and we’re getting much better at identifying, measuring, reporting and targeting health outcomes,” they write.
3. Reimbursement is beginning to reward coordinated care, positive outcomes. “Today’s standard approach of reimbursing for office visits and hospitalizations is likely to be displaced once better measures of outcomes can provide a substitute that’s more relevant to our key goals,” they write.
The authors argue these trends will force healthcare organizations to adapt their models to account for new demands for health quality and care coordination, rather than just providing disjointed healthcare services.
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