As I have stressed in my book Potent Medicine and in other articles I have authored payment reform is one of three critical factors required to transform health care. In this issue of Health Affairs, there are several opinion pieces describing what we need to do next. This includes getting capitation right. In the article by […]
I was asked by the I.O.M. to review this extensive document. For the most part I think they got it right. There are some weaknesses in this review and, although the final document is not actually released, I have a couple of concerns. First, there is too much emphasis on technology as the answer to the […]
With 10,000 hospitals the largest of which has 6500 beds, China healthcare is like everything else in the massive country. The scale is unfathomable. But as I have found visiting 11 countries over the last five years, the problems are exactly the same in China as everywhere else: the costs are sky rocketing, the quality […]
The nation is looking for answers to the healthcare mess. The financial media is scouring the world for anyone with a clue as to what really to do. Recently CNBC has focused on work done at the Center. They published an editorial I wrote http://www.cnbc.com/id/48608480 which outlines the three components of true health reform. These are: care […]
Hospitals and doctors still get paid based on the sickness care model. It should be no surprise why 30 day readmission rates for common clinical conditions haven’t changed over a three year period: Hospitals get paid to readmit patients not to keep them out of the hospital. Even though penalties are about to be applied […]
As lean thinkers we need to keep in mind the “enterprise wide” value stream. This means understanding every step in the customer’s experience from time to when an abnormality occurs to cure. But what if there is no process to identify abnormalities? Today we have a process that is perfectly designed to deliver poor health […]
The Center’s three-pronged strategy for true health reform relies on two parts of the bill that are most important — payment reform and the release of Medicare data with public reporting. We believe the experiments established by CMMI to test bundled payments, comprehensive primary care payments and the Pioneer ACO program, which moves to global […]
Inova has been working hard to deliver better value to customers using lean. The executives are taking this thinking now into new payment methods as this article in the Washington Post clearly articulates. Aetna and Inova unveil joint venture for improved, cost-effective health care – The Washington Post
AHRQ releases it’s state health rankings once a year. Wisconsin and Minnesota have been competing at the top for years and this year Minnesota won out in a close race. There are many good things happening in both of these states including transparency initiatives, lean healthcare, and major payment reform initiatives. Those that argue these […]
Lean in healthcare is beginning to take off. Five of the eleven high value health systems in this new report have deeply committed to transforming the entire organization using lean practices and principles. ThedaCare, Virginia Mason, and Denver Health have been using lean as a transformational set of principles for years. All three have been […]
