Huron Healthcare Shares Insights from Healthcare Leaders on The Payment Model Transition From Volume To Value

More Than 30 Hospital CEOs Talk About Delivering Value-Based Care at Huron Healthcare’s Third Annual CEO Forum

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Huron Consulting Group, a leading provider of business consulting services, released additional insights from its third annual Huron Healthcare CEO Forum. Hospital leaders at the Forum agreed that transformative change is necessary to move the healthcare enterprise from today’s volume-based system to tomorrow’s value-based model.

“We are now in the process of changing our culture. Our vision is very simple—to advance health. To manage population health, all parts of our organization have to be integrated and incented and be aligned and work together”

“Healthcare leaders are working to identify cost reduction strategies that make sense both now and under future payment models,” said Curt B. Whelan, managing director, Huron Healthcare. “One of the biggest challenges is how aggressively to manage care while we are still largely functioning in a fee-for-service system. Timing the change is very challenging.”

Discussions at the Forum explored key strategies on delivering value-based care:

Transitioning Organizational Focus

The more than 30 CEOs in attendance are all playing pivotal roles in the industry’s evolution at leading hospitals, health systems and academic medical centers. While these executives understand the significant cultural, structural and operational challenges they must overcome, they don’t underestimate the difficulties they will meet on their mission.

“The timing between the old vision and the new vision for healthcare – the first curve and the second curve – is really hard,” said David L. Bernd, CEO, Sentara Healthcare. “Straddling the fee-for-service payment methodology is almost impossible from a financial standpoint.”

Many spoke about the difficulties of operating under two models simultaneously.

“It takes more time to build new infrastructures than any of us think,” said James H. Skogsbergh, president and chief executive officer, Advocate Health Care. “Whatever amount of time you thought it was going to take, double it.”

Challenges of Value-Based Care Delivery

Payment reform and lagging transition to wellness care are just two obstacles hindering the forward momentum toward a value-based model.

“As the payment model mix continues to shift at different speeds in different markets, it presents a significant operational and leadership challenge for CEOs,” said Gordon Mountford, executive vice president, Huron Healthcare. “Healthcare leaders are developing many innovative strategies for operating under two models simultaneously, while positioning their organizations for the future, in which value-based models will continue to expand.”

“We are now in the process of changing our culture. Our vision is very simple—to advance health. To manage population health, all parts of our organization have to be integrated and incented and be aligned and work together,” said Dan Wolterman, President & CEO, Memorial Hermann Healthcare System. “Instead of the hospitals being their own little silos and getting incentivized and accounted for on their own, we’re now going to just one accounting statement. We’re trying to change the culture. We want employees focused on safe and efficient patient care.”

Attendees at the Huron Healthcare CEO Forum represented a broad range of organizations, from larger multi-hospital systems to academic medical centers to smaller community hospitals, and across urban and rural communities. Huron Healthcare’s CEO Forum report also shares additional valuable insights on transformative leadership and innovation from the attendees. Key themes highlighted in the report include:

• Priorities: Leading Through Disruptive Innovation to Make Organizational Change Real
• People: Achieving True Alignment with Key Stakeholders
• Patients: New Approaches to Care Delivery and Patient Relationships
• Purpose: Leading and Engaging Stakeholders

Inventing the Future of Healthcare: Top CEOs on the Real Work of Transforming the Healthcare Industry, Insights from the Huron Healthcare CEO Forum is available for download at www.HealthcareCEOForum.com.

To speak with one of Huron Healthcare’s experts about issues affecting hospital leaders, please contact:

Jennifer Frost Hennagir
312-880-3260
[e-mail]

Jenna Nichols
312-880-5693
[e-mail]

About Huron Healthcare

Huron Healthcare partners with clients to provide comprehensive performance improvement solutions that improve quality, increase revenue, reduce expenses, and increase physician, patient, and employee satisfaction across the healthcare enterprise. Clients include national and regional integrated healthcare systems, leading academic medical centers, community hospitals and physician practices. Modern Healthcare ranked Huron Healthcare third on its 2012 list of the largest healthcare management consulting firms. Learn more at www.huronconsultinggroup.com/healthcare or follow us on Twitter: @Huron.

About Huron Consulting Group

Huron Consulting Group helps clients in diverse industries improve performance, comply with complex regulations, reduce costs, recover from distress, leverage technology, and stimulate growth. The Company teams with its clients to deliver sustainable and measurable results. Huron provides services to a wide variety of both financially sound and distressed organizations, including healthcare organizations, Fortune 500 companies, leading academic institutions, medium-sized businesses, and the law firms that represent these various organizations. Learn more at www.huronconsultinggroup.com.