Delivery System Transformation

Health care is transforming to a value-based model, with the goals of improved care quality, access and outcomes for consumers, at lower costs. The means of achieving these goals is the effective management of health and health care services over the continuum of a population’s care and…
Hospital executives are facing a relatively new challenge: managing the financial risk of bundled or capitated payment after a patient is discharged. Now that post–acute care providers are an extension of a hospital’s care delivery model, their performance has direct implications for…
Community health improvement is an ongoing process, and hospital trustees can play a crucial role. The community health assessment is a method used by hospitals, public health departments and other social services agencies to identify and prioritize community health needs and assets and then use…
Conversations about the Affordable Care Act and its effect on hospitals have often concerned readmissions and the health insurance exchanges. Also important for hospitals and patients, though, is the effect the law has had on population health.
Millions of Americans living in vulnerable rural and urban communities depend upon their hospital as an important, and often only, source of care. These communities and their hospitals, however, face many challenges. As the hospital field engages in its most significant transformation to date…
The U.S. health care system continues to grapple with increased chronic disease management, changing demographics, increased responsibility around care coordination and medical homes, and the elimination of disparities in care. Hospitals will play a significant role in creating and implementing new…
Trustee talking points Homelessness is a growing problem in many communities, and many health systems are stepping up to be part of the solution. In the era of population health management, housing initiatives can have a positive return on investment if they help reduce avoidable emergency…
Millions of Americans in both urban and rural communities are unable to access essential health care services. A new report from the American Hospital Association, Task Force on Ensuring Access to Care in Vulnerable Communities, offers nine innovative ways to improve access for vulnerable…
Trustee talking points Health care is undergoing rapid transformation, and developments in 2017 should prove no exception. Hospital trustees need to stay on top of trends sweeping the field. New payment structures, cost pressures and system integration — combined with …
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last year set the ambitious goal of tying 30 percent of Medicare fee-for-service payments to quality or value through alternative payment models by the end of 2016 and 50 percent by the end of 2018. The agency announced in May that it had already…