Microsoft Pushing Healthcare Alignment, Too

11-18-2007 | Categories:

Alignment of Healthcare Stakeholders Becoming More Prominent?

The ideas about alignment of healthcare stakeholders expressed in Aligning incentives: The promise of pay for performance by Dennis Schmuland, M.D., FAAFP are hardly novel but given that they carry the imprimatur of a business that is likely to become a major force in healthcare, thy may well take on more significance than the same notions published in, say, some guy’s blog.

While the article focuses on alignment as a compelling reason to use pay-for-performance programs and high tech software and hardware the value of aligning patients, plans, and providers, even independent of the latest Microsoft gadget, is obvious.

I’ve included two excerpts to provide a taste of the brief article:

But if our existing health care system pays all professionals the same, is it any wonder that patients receive evidence-based care only slightly more than half the time? Even worse, hospitals and clinicians who do the “right things” to improve patient health, quality of care and outcomes—such as ordering screening tests, tightly controlling blood glucose levels, or ensuring adherence to aspirin for heart attack survivors or ACE inhibitors to patients with heart failure—often end up getting paid less than those who don’t.

By introducing incentives and meaningful payments to providers for using proven methods to improve health, quality of care, and outcomes, U.S. payers hope to correct shortcomings in safety, quality, and efficiency. In recognition of the importance of patients’ health habits and decisions to adhere to or ignore evidence-based treatments, some payers are extending pay for performance to patients by introducing incentives and rewards for healthy behaviors.

Clearly I’m biased about the importance of healthcare alignment. That is exactly the reason I urge you to read about the concept elsewhere as well.

The article can be found at

~ Aligning incentives: The promise of pay for performance ~

« Test-Driving The Personal Medication Record
Thanksgiving 2007 »

Related Posts: