U.S. medical costs continue to outpace the GDP despite the introduction of multiple accountable care efforts established to reduce unnecessary expenditures. These increasing costs have a negative impact on patients who are experiencing increased out-of-pocket expenses as well as employers who must shoulder a large part of the healthcare cost burden. While there are multiple societal factors contributing to the rising medical costs, our healthcare system can play a more effective role in addressing this problem. This role begins with fundamental changes to our reimbursement systems placing an emphasis on individual plans of care and adding greater accountability through free market controls. A comprehensive plan of care lays out the roles of care plan participants across medical, social, and behavioral services with a corresponding budget covering all the services provided as well as the expected outcomes from each service. An initial free market control is patient authority to accept or reject the plan of care with a corresponding financial responsibility for compliance in care plan execution. The elements of provider accountability include a public provider performance reporting system across quality, costs and patient satisfaction factors as well as a reimbursement system that incentivizes effective care planning and execution. This shift in focus from incremental care to care planning and execution combined with the institution of pro-competitive and financial accountability measures is expected to bring greater value to healthcare by improving patient outcomes while reducing medical costs.
Published in | Science Journal of Public Health (Volume 12, Issue 6) |
DOI | 10.11648/j.sjph.20241206.12 |
Page(s) | 189-193 |
Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Accountable Care, Competition, Free-Market Controls, Healthcare Value, Plan of Care, Reimbursement System, Transparent
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APA Style
Rezen, J. (2024). Achieving Healthcare Value through Care Plan Accountability. Science Journal of Public Health, 12(6), 189-193. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20241206.12
ACS Style
Rezen, J. Achieving Healthcare Value through Care Plan Accountability. Sci. J. Public Health 2024, 12(6), 189-193. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20241206.12
AMA Style
Rezen J. Achieving Healthcare Value through Care Plan Accountability. Sci J Public Health. 2024;12(6):189-193. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20241206.12
@article{10.11648/j.sjph.20241206.12, author = {John Rezen}, title = {Achieving Healthcare Value through Care Plan Accountability }, journal = {Science Journal of Public Health}, volume = {12}, number = {6}, pages = {189-193}, doi = {10.11648/j.sjph.20241206.12}, url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20241206.12}, eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sjph.20241206.12}, abstract = {U.S. medical costs continue to outpace the GDP despite the introduction of multiple accountable care efforts established to reduce unnecessary expenditures. These increasing costs have a negative impact on patients who are experiencing increased out-of-pocket expenses as well as employers who must shoulder a large part of the healthcare cost burden. While there are multiple societal factors contributing to the rising medical costs, our healthcare system can play a more effective role in addressing this problem. This role begins with fundamental changes to our reimbursement systems placing an emphasis on individual plans of care and adding greater accountability through free market controls. A comprehensive plan of care lays out the roles of care plan participants across medical, social, and behavioral services with a corresponding budget covering all the services provided as well as the expected outcomes from each service. An initial free market control is patient authority to accept or reject the plan of care with a corresponding financial responsibility for compliance in care plan execution. The elements of provider accountability include a public provider performance reporting system across quality, costs and patient satisfaction factors as well as a reimbursement system that incentivizes effective care planning and execution. This shift in focus from incremental care to care planning and execution combined with the institution of pro-competitive and financial accountability measures is expected to bring greater value to healthcare by improving patient outcomes while reducing medical costs. }, year = {2024} }
TY - JOUR T1 - Achieving Healthcare Value through Care Plan Accountability AU - John Rezen Y1 - 2024/11/29 PY - 2024 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20241206.12 DO - 10.11648/j.sjph.20241206.12 T2 - Science Journal of Public Health JF - Science Journal of Public Health JO - Science Journal of Public Health SP - 189 EP - 193 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2328-7950 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20241206.12 AB - U.S. medical costs continue to outpace the GDP despite the introduction of multiple accountable care efforts established to reduce unnecessary expenditures. These increasing costs have a negative impact on patients who are experiencing increased out-of-pocket expenses as well as employers who must shoulder a large part of the healthcare cost burden. While there are multiple societal factors contributing to the rising medical costs, our healthcare system can play a more effective role in addressing this problem. This role begins with fundamental changes to our reimbursement systems placing an emphasis on individual plans of care and adding greater accountability through free market controls. A comprehensive plan of care lays out the roles of care plan participants across medical, social, and behavioral services with a corresponding budget covering all the services provided as well as the expected outcomes from each service. An initial free market control is patient authority to accept or reject the plan of care with a corresponding financial responsibility for compliance in care plan execution. The elements of provider accountability include a public provider performance reporting system across quality, costs and patient satisfaction factors as well as a reimbursement system that incentivizes effective care planning and execution. This shift in focus from incremental care to care planning and execution combined with the institution of pro-competitive and financial accountability measures is expected to bring greater value to healthcare by improving patient outcomes while reducing medical costs. VL - 12 IS - 6 ER -