Healthcare in the U.S. is in the midst of a transformation, one that is long overdue. It’s no secret that how you pay for healthcare makes a difference in the kind of healthcare you get. In the U.S., payment has mostly come from private and government health plans and focused on reimbursement for treatments and diagnostic services. Coverage for care coordination and counseling to help patients prevent illness has been largely non-existent. The result is a system that costs far more than any other in the developed world while providing poorer health for the population as a whole.
That’s not to say that U.S. healthcare providers offer poor care. The U.S. has led the world in creating treatments and medications that save lives. While we are terrific at miracles and repairs, we have not done so well at keeping people healthy in the first place.
But the Affordable Care Act (ACA) included new models of reimbursement that are revolutionizing how we pay for healthcare, and that is causing a parallel revolution in how care is delivered. The new models are based on the idea of a patient-centered, information-driven system focused on better outcomes and lower costs. Though the ACA provisions focused on government payers, the private insurance market quickly saw the value in changing financial incentives and is moving steadily toward an outcomes-driven model that pays healthcare providers to keep people healthy at a more affordable cost.
At the heart of this transformation is technology. We now have the capability to integrate and analyze vast amounts of data that can give us insights to create better outcomes for patients at lower costs to everyone. And we can deliver those insights at the right time, the right place to empower caregivers in ways that will help them be more effective. New remote monitoring devices and telehealth capabilities are taking care beyond the walls of the hospital and physician offices, to the places where people need care the most: their everyday lives.
In the past six weeks, leading up to National Healthcare IT Week, Dell thought leaders have reflected on this revolution in series of insightful blogs. I invite you all to read their views on how technology is helping create what I believe will be the best healthcare system the world has ever seen. One that not only has the expertise to create miracles, but also has the power to prevent disease and give longer, healthier lives to all our people.
- Using cost transparency to change physician practice patterns (Healthcare Finance News)
- How ICD-10 can help payers and docs collaborate (Healthcare IT News)
- Are clinicians ready for ICD-10 documentation requirements? (EHRIntelligence)
- Protecting data on the Internet of Things? Forget ‘business as usual’ (mHealth News)
- Patient portals: strategies for engaging users (Information Week)
- As payers adopt coordinated care model, results suggest everyone wins (Electronic Health Reporter)