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Healthcare Transition: Why Being the Best May Not Work

May 31, 2015 9:00 am

According to a commentary, “Why Strategy Matters Now,” (NEJM 2015; 372: 1681-4), successful health care organizations are going to need to develop a strategy to provide better value as the key goal.

They note that previous approaches to develop scale and market presence will be trumped by patients choosing insurance products with narrowed provider networks and high deductibles. With reimbursement decreases and resistance from private insurance companies to ‘cross-subsidize care’ for publicly-insured or noninsured patients, that change is inevitable. Key points:

“Having a good brand is no longer enough: patients and payers are looking for good value, service by service.”
“Providers that organize themselves to improve outcomes and become more efficient in doing so will be rewarded.”

The authors then detail several questions that healthcare organizations need to answer to develop their strategy for being successful.

My take: While there is an effort to transform health care, a big stumbling block is the ability to measure value and quality. Until this becomes easier, this transformation will be slow-going.

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Healthcare Transition: Why Being the Best May Not Work

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