Preparing for Accountable Care: Aligning Patient and Provider Incentives

Author:

Jordan Battani

Healthcare cost inflation in the United States is out of control by any measure one cares to apply. Traditional cost shifting and payment reduction strategies have not succeeded in moderating the growth curve and many stakeholders believe that the problem lies in the incentive structures embedded in traditional practice of fee-for-service medicine. Health Reform policy and private sector innovations like value-based benefit design, value-based insurance design, wellness program incentives, patient-centered medical home, accountable care, bundled payments and value-based purchasing are all efforts to transform traditional practices and incentives, but tend to focus exclusively either on the patient side of the cost equation or on the provider side of the cost equation.

The real opportunity for transformation lies in bringing these efforts together by aligning patient and provider incentives for common activities, practices and behaviors in pursuit of the common goal of improved quality, improved outcomes and lower overall cost.

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