“Value-based healthcare” is a concept that originated in 2006 at Harvard University. The concept evolves and often takes on differing definitions and meanings for many stakeholders in the U.S. healthcare industry. The attached article, entitled “The Strategy That Will Fix Healthcare” and authored by Michael E. Porter and Thomas H. Lee (both names should be familiar to you given our coursework), was published by the Harvard Business Review in October 2013. Though now somewhat dated, the article contains perhaps the most definitive and widely accepted definition of “value-based healthcare.” In sum, the authors provide the following definition of “value-based healthcare:” “At its [value-based healthcare] core is maximizing value for patients: that is, achieving the best outcomes at the lowest cost. We must move away from a supply-driven health care system organized around what physicians do and toward a patient-centered system organized around what patients need. We must shift the focus from the volume and profitability of services provided—physician visits, hospitalizations, procedures, and tests—to the patient outcomes achieved. And we must replace today’s fragmented system, in which every local provider offers a full range of services, with a system in which services for particular medical conditions are concentrated in health-delivery organizations and in the right locations to deliver high-value care.”
Despite the conceptual attractiveness of value-based care as defined by Porter and Lee and the age of the concept itself, the majority of healthcare in the U.S. remains delivered via fee-for-service arrangements. Given this fact, it is reasonable to conclude that other factors or barriers to the implementation of value-based exist. (See attached article associated with the New England Journal of Medicine.)
This “Signature Assignment” should focus on the following question:
“What is the status of value-based healthcare in the U.S. as well as in the local region in which I (the student) reside, and why hasn’t more progress been made in implementing value-based healthcare in those areas?”
In order to produce a high quality response to this question, the student should do the following:
a) provide your clear, current, and most widely accepted definition of “value-based healthcare.
b) provide a reporting as to the status or degree of implementation of value-based healthcare in the nation as a whole as well as, if possible, in the local region in which you reside, including, for example, the proportion of healthcare (usually acute care hospital services, physician services, prescription drugs, and short-term rehabilitation) delivered via value-based versus other arrangements, including fee-for-service
c) provide a well-researched objective identification of obstacles and barriers to the implementation of value-based healthcare in the nation as a whole as well as, if possible, in the local region in which you reside
d) provide an array of well-researched potential methods and steps to overcome the previously referenced obstacles and barriers in the nation as a whole as well as, if possible, in the local region in which you reside
e) develop a well-justified projection or forecast as to the most likely timelines for the implementation of value-based healthcare in the nation as a whole as well as in the local region in which the student resides. Finally, clear identifications of “health policy” and “healthcare economics” concepts, interrelationships, and implications should be made, as appropriate and helpful, with respect to key aspects of each of the foregoing items “a” though “e,” as this topic and the core question of the Assignment clearly involve both health policy as well as healthcare economics.
Not including the bibliography, each “Signature Assignment” paper is to consist of at least four, but not more than six pages, double-spaced in Times New Roman or Calibri 11 point font. (Get to the point in your writing) The paper must include at least seven annotated, scholarly, non-commercial reference citations. Each paper will be graded on quality of research, rigor of analysis, mastery of the subject, demonstration of course competencies and learning objectives, strength of prediction or forecast, and overall effectiveness of writing and composition. Writing should be clear, succinct, and professional in style (not informal or in first or second person tense) and format
