Population health management: A formula for value.

Abstract

I n 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA, otherwise known as Obamacare) created a blueprint for a potential sea change that’s not well understood by many Americans. The ACA’s most visible impacts are the more than 20 million people now covered with health insurance and the shifting of payments to reward quality rather than quantity of care. What may be less apparent are the imperatives to improve the health of all people and reduce disease burden, embodied in the 2011 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) National Quality Strategy.1 Mandated in the ACA, the strategy embraces the goals of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Triple Aim: better experience of care that’s accessible, reliable, and safer; healthier people and communities, which addresses the behavioral, social, and environmental determinants of health; and more affordable care through lower costs.