Briefing on Trends Shaping the DC Metro Area Health Care Market
While DC-area health care leaders recognize the inevitable shift from fee-for-service to value-based payment and the need for their organizations to develop population-management capabilities, most hospitals are continuing to emphasize fee-for-service strategies. Across the District of Columbia metropolitan area, including suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia, many hospitals are strategically locating new ambulatory facilities, such as freestanding emergency departments and urgent care centers, to attract patients—especially affluent, well-insured patients.
In some cases, however, hospitals are using these new ambulatory networks to position themselves for population health management under value-based payment. The persistence of fee-for-service strategies likely stems from the commercial insurance market’s “pass-through” environment that allows provider rate increases to be passed on to employers through premium increases because the market has many employers able to absorb the additional costs and no large, influential employers pushing for cost-containment innovations.
WHAT: A briefing to release and discuss a new Community Report sponsored by the Jayne Koskinas Ted Giovanis Foundation for Health and Policy and written by researchers at Mathematica Policy Research examining how health care is organized, financed, and delivered in the DC metropolitan area.
WHEN: Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014
WHO: Paul B. Ginsburg, Ph.D., professor at the University of Southern California; Laurie Felland, M.S., associate director of health research at Mathematica Policy Research; and Ha Tu, M.P.A., senior researcher at Mathematica Policy Research; will provide an overview of the findings. Carmela Coyle, president of the Maryland Hospital Association; Robert Berenson, M.D., institute fellow at the Urban Institute; and David Cusano, J.D., a senior research fellow at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute; will discuss the findings.
WHY: Find out about the latest health care market trends in the DC metropolitan area and what they mean for consumers, employers, providers, and insurers.
The Jayne Koskinas Ted Giovanis Foundation for Health and Policy fosters public discussion around health care policy to benefit the public good. Through research, white papers and more, the foundation serves as an honest, independent broker of ideas and methods to achieve the competing goals of cost reduction, expanding access, and improving quality. Visit www.jktgfoundation.org to learn more.
