How Can We Bend the Cost Curve?
Payment Incentive and Integrated Care Delivery Levers for
Health System Reform and Cost Containment
Debra Edwards
Liberty University
Introduction
This paper will briefly explore the impact of economics on the provision of health care reform, the implications for financing healthcare, payment methods, cost containment effectiveness, and the health care delivery system. Authors Holly Korda and Gloria Eldridge posed a question in their journal article entitled, “How Can We Bend the Cost Curve?” The authors answer to the question of bending the cost curve is asserted with explanations of payment incentives, coordination of health care, monitoring and assessing quality of care, and levers for health system reform and cost containment. This paper aims to compare and contrast the authors’ purpose for this article; the argument presented to support their viewpoint, and will be examined by the qualified nurse writer of this paper with further research.
Authors’ Main Points and Purpose
The 2010 Affordable Care Act Reform (ACA) brought about major changes in health care organization, delivery, and financing (Korda and Eldridge, 2011, p. 277). The overall scope of this reform is to improve health outcomes, and advance value-based health care. Mason, Leavitt and Chafee reiterates that it is customary to evaluate health care on how well it provides safe and effective quality patient care at a reasonable cost, and accessibility to health care (p. 123).
Korda and Eldridge study reveals that under the health care reform (Affordable Care Act) health care organizations network with groups of providers that have a collaborative responsibility for quality health care and cost containment. Examples of network health care models are patient-centered medical homes (PCMH) and accountable care organizations (ACOs). PCMH provide patients with primary care providers who are...