Neurosurgical Practice and Health Care Reform
Neurosurgical Practice and Health Care Reform
In an effort to rein in spending and improve patient outcomes, the US government and the private sector have adopted a number of policies over the last decade that hold health care professionals increasingly accountable for the cost and quality of the care they provide. A major driver of these efforts is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA or Pub.L. 111–148), which aims to change the US health care system from one that rewards quantity to one that rewards better value through the use of performance measurement. However, for this strategy to succeed in raising the bar on quality and efficiency, it will require the development of more standardized and accurate methods of data collection and further streamlined federal regulations that encourage enhanced patient-centered care instead of creating additional burdens that interfere with the physician-patient relationship.
With the signing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA or Pub.L. 111–148), the US health system entered a new era in which health care professionals will be held to an unprecedented level of accountability for both the quality and efficiency of the care they provide. Although health care quality assessment and improvement have been integral elements of the practice of medicine for much of the past 2 centuries, historically these efforts have been mostly voluntary, internally driven by organized medicine, and rarely focused on cost. The ACA adds a new dimension to these efforts by authorizing numerous value-based payment and delivery reforms that will fundamentally change the way in which medical care is delivered, evaluated, and paid for. These provisions, which aim to reduce unnecessary and inappropriate care, figure so prominently in the reform package that the term "value" appears over 200 times throughout the text of the ACA.
Abstract and Introduction
Abstract
In an effort to rein in spending and improve patient outcomes, the US government and the private sector have adopted a number of policies over the last decade that hold health care professionals increasingly accountable for the cost and quality of the care they provide. A major driver of these efforts is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA or Pub.L. 111–148), which aims to change the US health care system from one that rewards quantity to one that rewards better value through the use of performance measurement. However, for this strategy to succeed in raising the bar on quality and efficiency, it will require the development of more standardized and accurate methods of data collection and further streamlined federal regulations that encourage enhanced patient-centered care instead of creating additional burdens that interfere with the physician-patient relationship.
Introduction
With the signing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA or Pub.L. 111–148), the US health system entered a new era in which health care professionals will be held to an unprecedented level of accountability for both the quality and efficiency of the care they provide. Although health care quality assessment and improvement have been integral elements of the practice of medicine for much of the past 2 centuries, historically these efforts have been mostly voluntary, internally driven by organized medicine, and rarely focused on cost. The ACA adds a new dimension to these efforts by authorizing numerous value-based payment and delivery reforms that will fundamentally change the way in which medical care is delivered, evaluated, and paid for. These provisions, which aim to reduce unnecessary and inappropriate care, figure so prominently in the reform package that the term "value" appears over 200 times throughout the text of the ACA.
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