by Gregg A. Masters, MPH
Those of us healthcare ‘insiders‘ generally grasp the notion that the cost burden of access to widely variant, discontinuous and for the most part ‘silo-ed’ healthcare services in the U.S. is an outlier when compared to other developed (OECD) economies (see chart below).
This persistent relationship accompanied by epidemic levels of physician and clinician burnout if not outright demoralization has caused the question of ‘value‘ to resurface as the strategic imperative of our time. Thus, so called ‘value based‘ healthcare vs. it’s legacy (and persistent) fee-for-services incentive momentum is now the new, new thing in healthcare. The value agenda is front and center in healthcare delivery, quality and outcomes innovation, with ‘Zeigeist’ level disruption expected for ecosystem stakeholders including hospitals, health systems, physicians, medical groups, ancillary services providers, pharma, medical devices, digital health apps or platforms, or in other words the entire supplier value chain.
Thus much of the ‘innovation energy‘ in the $3.3 trillion U.S. healthcare economy inclusive of primary, specialty and sub-specialty services to devices, pharma, platforms, digital health apps and an ever expanding practice portfolio of complementary or functional medicine alternatives seem to emerge almost daily.
After decades of relentless and occasional obscene premium increases, accompanied by cost shifts from third party payors, managed health plans, or legacy insurance underwriters to its members or covered beneficiaries through reduced coverage, service caps, higher deductibles and co-pays, the core industry challenge persists, i.e., the ‘triple aim‘, better care, better outcomes at lower per capita cost remains just outside of our collective reach.
The CDC estimates that 90% of the U.S. healthcare spend is attributable to the burden of chronic disease, including heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes at the top of the class. It can be safely assumed that members and participants in American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) Combined Sections Meeting in Washington, D.C. from January 23 – 26th will feature keynote talks, and sessions directly or indirectly devoted to achieving the triple aim. For more information on APTA CSM, see: CSM 2019: Connect.Learn.ChooseDC.
Share Your Physical Therapy Innovation
If you have a story that drove your passion to innovate – from clinical workflow efficiencies, to platform, app, AI or device assisted outcomes improvement, come share your story.
To schedule, please ping interest via twitter via @2healthguru with some background information and your value proposition. We’ll set-up in booth #2111.
Health Innovation Media is co-locating it’s signature #pinksocks ‘pop-up‘ studio on site with the brilliant, serial entrepreneur and ‘skin in the game‘ founder and CEO of 9zest (follow via @9zest_inc), Manoj Agarwala.
As an epilepsy survivor, Manoj launched 9zest as:
‘an Intelligent Digital Health Rehab Platform with modules specially designed for Stroke, Parkinson’s, Chronic Pain and Physical Therapy. 9zest is a white label solution for rehab and physical therapy leaders.‘
We caught up with Manoj at the World Health Care Congress in Washington, D.C. last May. My colleague and Health Innovation Media co-host Douglas Goldstein got the details and company history.
Get to know Manoj, the 9zest value proposition and what inspired him to make a difference in the lives of others.
Join us!
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