“Navigating the Perilous Journey From Entitlement to Accountability –
Sure Bets, No Regrets and the Great Unknown.”
January 23, 2012
Educational Series– Speaker Nate Kaufman
Location: Irene Dixon Auditorium – Roper Hospital
Session One – 7 am – 8:30 am
Session Two – 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Nate Kaufman is Managing Director and founder of Kaufman Strategic Advisors, LLC, an established San Diego-based consulting company
The recent passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has created uncertainty about the future of the nation’s healthcare delivery system. Regardless of how PPACA is implemented, or funded or modified, PPACA and other government initiatives e.g., value-based purchasing have signaled to healthcare providers that that they will have to offer care that is more coordinated, efficient and of high measurable quality that are “Sure Bets” regarding the future of healthcare delivery in the United States. In order to prepare for the ultimate impact of these “Sure Bets,” healthcare organizations must begin today to modify their core beliefs and clinical practices.
Health systems will have to begin today to invest in new competencies in order to be positioned for the healthcare system of the future. These competencies include: employing physicians without breaking the bank, clinically integrating to make care more predictable and coordinated, and redesign to eliminate waste and unnecessary variation of care. In order to accomplish this the individual providers within a health system must trade their autonomy for a team culture.
As we learned in the early 90’s, investing in the organizational structure de jour, can be costly. Without proper leadership, culture and execution, efforts to employ physicians, clinically integrate and create ACO’s could be actually be worse for an organization than doing nothing!
That is do it right or don’t do it at all.
Traditional means of subsidizing the underfunding of Medicare and Medicaid (i.e. investments and cost shifting) will not be sufficient for a health system to achieve optimal performance. The impact of theoretical models such as consumer-directed health care, medical homes and deployment of information technology, may actually add cost over the next five to 10 years (per the CBO.) Thus hospitals must begin both resizing their “cost chassis” and redesigning care to approach breakeven at Medicare rates.
This session will provide participants with a likely scenario of what the healthcare system will look like in 2016 and the critical competencies necessary for success. For each competency, there will be a discussion, using specific examples of the underlying factors that will determine whether the strategy will succeed or fail. We will identify strategies that are critical for a health system’s future success. The strategies focus on reducing cost, improving care coordination, effectively engaging with physicians, and maintaining strong financial performance. The organization that implements these key strategies will have “no regrets” and will be well-positioned for whatever comes next.