ABSTRACT
One of the biggest shifts coming to U.S. healthcare is a change in how we pay for care. While people in the United States have typically been charged per service/visit, there is now a shift to paying for treatment of a particular condition. In response, insurers are trying to introduce new payment systems that reward “value” rather than intensive treatment. Changing the payment system is making it less profitable to “do more” and more profitable to increase quality of care and be more efficient. Some hospitals are already pioneering this new approach, radically changing how they care for patients and exploring innovative programs to keep their systems financially viable under this new model. This shift means big changes for doctors, patients and hospital administrators. In the past, the most successful doctors and hospitals where those who did the most high-cost procedures. The “winners” in this new race will be those healthcare facilities that can provide the best care with the greatest efficiency, as we present in this chapter.
