Expert Voices: Getting to Value
Dan Mendelson, President, Avalere Health and Tanisha Carino, PhD, Vice President, Avalere HealthDownload the PDF | Request hard copies | Subscribe to Expert Voices
August 2008
High health care costs and recognition of the gap between high quality care and what most Americans receive has garnered support for the need to promote value in our health care system. While there may be agreement at a conceptual level as to what constitutes value, measuring and encouraging it in practice have proven difficult. Prior attempts to promote value have been hindered by a lack of appropriate data systems, an absence of shared lessons learned, and a focus on narrow components of health care. In this essay, Mendelson and Carino examine key challenges to achieving value in the U.S. health care system and review public- and private-sector attempts made to promote value. After taking stock of where we stand now, they provide a vision for a value-based health care system and outline steps necessary to attain it.
Other recent Expert Voices essays include:
- The Honorable David M. Walker, former Comptroller General of the United States, "Facing Up To America's Health Care Challenge" (March 2008)
- Donald M. Berwick, MD, President and CEO, Institute for Health Care Improvement (IHI), "Reducing the Harm From Medical Care" (January 2008)
- Lawrence C. Baker, PhD, "Medical Imaging Capacity and Health Care Spending: Is There Cause for Concern?" (November 2007)
- Peter J. Neumann, ScD, "Getting Better Value for Our Health Spending - A Value Deficit in U.S. Health Care" (July 2007)
- David Eddy, MD, PhD, "Medical Decision-making: Why it must, and how it can, be improved" (May 2007)
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