Value In Health Care Accounting For Cost Quality Safety Outcomes And Innovation Workshop Summary

Pierre L. Yong

The United States has the highest per capita spending on health care of any industrialized nation. Yet despite the unprecedented levels of spending, harmful medical errors abound, uncoordinated care continues to frustrate patients and providers, and U.S. healthcare costs continue to increase. The growing ranks of the uninsured, an aging population with a higher prevalence of chronic diseases, and many patients with multiple conditions together constitute more complicating factors in the trend to higher costs of care. A variety of strategies are beginning to be employed throughout the health system to address the central issue of value, with the goal of improving the net ration of benefits obtained per dollar spent on health care. However, despite the obvious need, no single agreed-upon measure of value or comprehensive, coordinated systemwide approach to assess and improve the value...