ABSTRACT
The US healthcare system has been undergoing a foundational and fundamental transformation driven largely by two key federal laws: (1) The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and was passed on February 17, 2009; and (2) The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) also called the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Obamacare, which was enacted on March 23, 2010. Each of the three stages required an attestation that organizations had met progressively more challenging requirements and therefore were eligible for reimbursements as structured under the law. The Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI), an independent, not-for-profit organization driving innovation and results for healthcare improvement worldwide, developed a three-pronged framework to optimize health system performance. The aptly named Triple Aim focuses on the following: (1) Improving patient experience of care; (2) Improving the health of populations; and (3) reducing the per capita cost of healthcare.
