Team-Based Care Offers a New World of Value

In a world of value, accountable care, and shared savings, the overarching goal is to increase delivery of quality, affordable health care. Examples of cost-saving measures include appropriate triage of nonemergent patients away from the emergency department—instead directing patients to a primary care provider with extended office hours—and care coordination of chronically ill patients through condition-focused programs. Health systems and provider groups are rewarded for prevention with care coordination incentives that are absent from the fee-for-service model. To achieve care coordination, interdisciplinary teams are emerging with new categories of health care workers, including population health managers and care coordinators. With team-based care, incentives will reward not what we do for patients, but instead how well we coordinate care through transitions like hospitalization or surgery. Preventing negative outcomes for patients with chronic diseases like diabetes or hypertension will take longer to realize, but the adage is true: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Medicare population growth is significant and will leave many older patients facing access issues. Between 2012 and 2050, the United States will experience considerable growth in its older population. By 2050, one-fifth of the total US population will be 65 years or older, up from 12% in 2000 and 8% in 1950 [1]. The aging of the baby boomers is largely responsible for this increase in the older adult population, as baby boomers began turning 65 years old in 2011. Nationwide, hospitals and health systems are also expanding health care delivery teams by using…