Population Health's Next Frontier
Monica Puga, RN, recalls when value-based care was considered a passing trend. Rebecca Adkins remembers the days of a registered nurse using a spreadsheet to analyze data on a population of patients. Nick Macchione, FACHE, thinks back to his time during the 1990s managing AIDS patients. And, Jessica Diamond, FACHE, remembers when payers began to focus on clinical outcomes.
Today, all of these healthcare leaders hold or have held executive roles in population health management, as many organizations in the past several years have created C-suite and senior-level positions to oversee the transition from fee-for-service to value-based care.
From mindsets about value-based care to the tools, technologies and care teams used, much has changed within population health management since the early days of these executives’ work. Yet, there is much more change on the near horizon as the field continues to evolve in the constant drive to attain a system of care that strives for high quality, while squeezing out unnecessary costs.
Each of the executives above has worked in the population health field for over a decade. The changes they describe and what they forecast present a snapshot of how the work and their roles have evolved and how population health management will continue to transform over the next several years.