Healthcare Reform "Value Promotion & Reward" Strategy

I've been writing about the need for high value healthcare for over four years. In the past year or so, more and more people have begun discussing the notion of value with regards to healthcare reform.

I've recently participated in one such discussion at KevinMD in a post about the tension between physicians and health policy experts (at this link) and another about how physician consolidation places health reformers in an ironic dilemma (at this link).

My comments focused on making the case that success healthcare reform models must be built on strategies focusing on (a) delivering high value care to every patient (client/consumer) by (b) enabling and rewarding the efficient delivery of high quality (safe & effective) “sick-care” (treating illness and dysfunction) and “well-care” (prevention and self-maintenance) within (c) a trust-worthy learning environment that promotes continuous, demonstrable improvement in care value.

Such strategies measure value as quality divided by cost, which is a measure of cost-effectiveness.

Key tactics of this value promotion & reward strategy are:

• “Value-pricing,” which means paying more for healthcare services and products proven to be more cost-effective (and vice versa)
• Patient-centered cognitive support, which consists of advanced health IT systems that help practitioners/clinicians/providers avoid information overload as they: (a) gain deep knowledge patients’ problems and risks, along with sharp awareness of the most cost-effective diagnostic, treatment and prevention options and (b) use that knowledge and awareness to make valid decisions, take competent actions and achieve good outcomes 
• Shared decision-making, during which health practitioners educate patients about their treatment options in understandable language that takes into account patients’ individualized needs, circumstances and preferences
• Practice-research collaboration (knowledge networks) that generate and disseminate ever-evolving evidence-based preferred practice guidelines and self-help recommendations
• Healthcare delivery models assuring access and availability of high-value care to everyone.

Related posts:

The Need for a Value-Pricing Model in Healthcare
Enabling EHRs to Improve Care
Healthcare Reform Models Focusing on Value to Consumers - Part 1
Healthcare Reform Models Focusing on Value to Consumers – Part 2
Healthcare Reform Models Focusing on Value to Consumers – Part 3
Four Interlocking Issues about Fixing American Healthcare
Patient-Centered Life-Cycle (PCLC) Value Chain--Process Reform: Pay for Value