Health Care Symposium Highlights Next Steps for Population Health

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The transition to population health management will require health care leaders to provide four kinds of leadership, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle told nearly 300 health care executives and health policy experts on September 16 at The Advisory Board Company's 2013 National Population Health Symposium.

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Leaders must show resiliency, innovation, engagement, and collaboration, breaking down silos that prevent us from making our market more efficient, Senator Daschle said.  "What we need now is leadership," he summarized. 

Senator Daschle also believes that there is bipartisan agreement that the millions of uninsured citizens and skyrocketing spending must be addressed.  "Those who advocate that we do nothing but the status quo are not likely to survive the next several years," he said.     

The audience included more than 40 CEOs and more than 100 other C-suite executives from the nation's leading health organizations.  The event brought together executives from across the continuum of care, including speakers from hospitals and health systems, physician organizations, post-acute care providers, policymakers, employers, and insurers. 

Real-World Guidance on Population Health Management
Speakers included Jonathan Blum, Deputy Administrator and Director for the Center of Medicare at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Farzad Mostashari, MD, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  Other insights they shared:

• Dr. Mostashari bluntly advised health care providers to prioritize their analytics efforts: "Focus on what kills people," and follow evidence-based care for the "ABCs": Aspirin, blood pressure, cholesterol, and smoking.
• Dr. Mostashari's other advice on analytics for providers included starting with fundamental needs, notably being able to make a list of their own patients.
• Mr. Blum noted that the swing to a reduction in national readmission rates was evidence that the cost of health care is finally starting to fall and is doing so because of structural changes rather than the economy. He encouraged providers to continue their efforts to reduce readmissions.
• Senator Daschle sees two areas of bipartisan consensus, though both still present a number of challenges. An effort is under way to try to enact the "doc fix" by repealing the Sustainable Growth Rate. Entitlement reform was another place legislators may act, though less likely, Mr. Daschle said.

More Critical Insights on Population Health
More than two dozen other speakers at the inaugural event discussed what works in population health management. Industry leaders and health policy experts shared answers to that question in practical, nuts-and-bolts terms, including:

• Insights from inside Medicare's ACO programs and the Bundled Payment for Care Improvement Initiative,
• Learnings from scaling population health through regional, multiprovider, multipayer initiatives,
• How private payers are driving more rapid reform than their public counterparts, and
• How leading health systems are harnessing data and analytics for population health.

The Symposium's diversity of speakers and attendees, particularly in including post-acute care providers, is unusual for industry events. 

"Bringing together health care industry leaders with health care policy leaders, the Symposium was propelled by the firsthand perspectives and insights of organizations who have enacted different approaches to navigating the transition to population health management," said Chas Roades, Chief Research Officer at The Advisory Board Company, a global research, consulting, and technology firm that works with 4,100 organizations across health care and higher education. 

Roades also shared The Advisory Board Company's top insights on population health management at the event, including:

• Risk-bearing provider organizations will need capitated risk or something close to it–nothing short of full risk can defeat fee-for-service incentives;
• Private sector innovation–employers, payers, and providers developing new payment and delivery strategies–will be the dominant engine for health care transformation; and
• Those who successfully create a sustainable health care model will have made the most significant contribution to our nation in a generation.

A summary of the day is available on The Advisory Board Company's Toward Accountable Payment blog.  Presentations from the event are available at http://www.advisory.com/NPHS.

To learn more about The Advisory Board Company's work in population health management, hospital and health system executives may register for the webconference, "A Platform for Population Health Management," on Monday, October 7 at 3 p.m. EDT or "Medicare Shared Savings Series, Part 1: Lessons from MSSP," on Thursday, November 7 at 2 pm EST, or "Medicare Shared Savings Series, Part 2: Building the Population Health Enterprise," on Wednesday, November 20 at 1 pm EST.  Members of The Advisory Board Company's Population Health Advisor program can download the infographic, "Making the Right Investments: The Team, Framework, and Measures You Need to Evaluate Population Health Initiatives."

About The Advisory Board Company
The Advisory Board Company is a global research, technology, and consulting firm partnering with 165,000 leaders across health care and higher education. Through its innovative membership model, the Company collaborates with executives and their teams to elevate performance and solve their most pressing challenges. The Company provides strategic guidance, actionable insights, web-based software solutions, and comprehensive implementation and management services. For more information, visit the firm's website, www.advisory.com.

SOURCE The Advisory Board Company