Moderators: Julie Fritz, PT, PhD; Brian Justice, DC
Escalating health care costs, without commensurate improvements in patient-centered outcomes, have spawned initiatives designed to improve the value of health care. Value is the benefit achieved relative to the money spent. Spine care is an area targeted for value-based reform because costs for spine care are outstripping those for overall health care, yet outcomes for spine patients are not proportionate.
Various value-based reform initiatives are beginning to impact spine care providers including Affordable Care Organizations (ACOs), pay-for-performance or other payer partnerships and other efforts designed to standardize care through evidence-based care pathways. Without major improvements in value, the future of spine care is likely to include restricted access to services, continued cost-shifting towards patients, lower incomes for health care professionals and less than optimal outcomes for patients.
Upon completion of this session, participants should gain strategies to:
- Learn from thought leaders emerging designing to improve spine care value;
- Understand the ultrastructure of care pathways and their integration into profit sharing/risk sharing modes such as ACOs;
- Examine the evidence-basis for patient-centered outcomes and episode costs related to care pathway integration;
- Describe evolving value models centered on the merging of care benefit (to patient and society) with episode cost;
- Explore examples of communication and clinical skill sets to engage in the emerging health care system.
Agenda
- Care Pathway Models: A Literature Review
Julie Fritz, PT, PhD
- Designing for Better Spine Care with Less & Q/A
Arnold Milstein, MD; Eugene Hsu, MD
- An Academic’s Look at Imbedding a Care Pathway into an ACO and Hospital: The Jordan/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Spine Program
Michael Schneider, DC, PhD
- The Relational Component to Care Pathways: The Future of Health Teams and High-Performing Networks
John Ventura, DC
- The Patient-Physician Relationship and Its Effects on Resource Use
Daniel B. Wolfson, MHSA
- Using ACOs as Pilot Programs for Spine Pathway Implementation: The Excellus BCBS Spine Health Program
Brian Justice, DC
- Implementation of Care Pathways: Partnering with Payers
Julie Fritz, PT, PhD
- Discussion