As the United States continues to move toward a value-based health care system, significant challenges slow down our progress. Political pressure exists from all sides, incentives have yet to be appropriately aligned, and the pressing need to change stakeholder behavior remains a time-sensitive imperative. Solving these challenges requires going beyond admiring the challenges to implementing solutions—a focus of the Leavitt Partners Annual Strategy meeting.
On July 30-31, 2018 Governor Leavitt, Leavitt Partners principals and advisors, special guests, and 132 individuals from 103 companies convened to explore the biggest obstacles on our journey toward a better American health care system and highlight the solutions that will get us there. The day-and-a-half forum offered participants an opportunity to learn new perspectives and engage in discussions on:
- Where we are on the journey to value, lessons learned from other countries that are using or testing new ways to deliver and pay for care to improve quality and contain costs, and what is required to stay on the path
- Why value is not a guaranteed destination, and what impact disruptors (political, market) have on the future course
- How we can create and sustain the sense of urgency that is required to tackle the more difficult challenges, including the many regional and demographic challenges that create disparities in quality and coverage
- How health systems, payers, communities, and state stakeholders are individually and collaboratively addressing upstream social determinants of health, and the downstream benefits of such efforts
- The scalability of new innovations and specific approaches to more closely align groundbreaking treatments and medical advancements with the challenges our health systems need to solve
- What role employers (that collectively insure the largest number of Americans) can play in driving change when there are limitations of employer influence
- What consumers need to be “at the center” of health care, and how technology and care coordination can deliver on that promise
Leavitt Partners believes that absent major change in the broader external environment, a “volume to value” transition is still likely to require 15-20 years to complete. However, political and economic pressures could take us in a different direction, at least in the short term. Slow progress coupled with uncertainty leaves many stakeholders frustrated: how can they thrive in the new value economy without a clear direction? Leavitt Partners alleviates this frustration by helping clients not only understand what is generally happening regarding the movement towards value, but also what specifically is happening in the evolving ecosystem that affects a client (its products, services, and marketplace).
Leavitt Partners informs and advises clients on how to thrive in the health care value economy by utilizing the firm’s health intelligence: robust tracking of market developments in the public and private sectors, analysis of policy developments at the state and federal levels, proprietary data, Leavitt Partners leaders with decades of public and private sector experience, and relationships with thought leaders who contribute to the firm’s perspective. The firm’s market insights help clients design solutions appropriate for local dynamics, as highlighted in Leavitt Partners recent publication, “Health Care Markets: What Matters and Why.”
Those who choose to lean-in and lead in an industry or market will help redefine our uniquely American health care system. Such leaders understand that we will succeed when all stakeholders – current and new – are collaborating to achieve quality and safety, competing to provide best outcomes at lowest cost, and ensuring that the American people have both security and freedom in their health care experience.
Aligning value across stakeholders requires cooperation and dialogue. Leavitt Partners facilitates those conversations through various mechanisms including Health Intelligence Partners, a member-based community of industry executives that is convened regularly to promote cross-sector collaboration and learning on key issues. Additionally, Leavitt Partners Health Speakers offers organizations access to executives that leverage their expansive health policy and meeting facilitation expertise to drive meaningful conclusions and a path for change management. For additional information on ways that Leavitt Partners is tracking and providing policy and market health intelligence to support the transition to value, please contact Jennifer Colamonico.