Knowledge Center

Healthcare delivery systems in the U.S. have traditionally targeted health intervention strategies at individuals rather than populations. However, the transition to value-based care necessitates that healthcare providers develop population health management strategies to improve disease management. This article outlines the ways in which population health management can benefit both the healthcare system and the health of the communities it serves. By: Michelle Kurta, Mary Beth Lang, Benjamin Collier, and Scott Mullins

In 2014, AHRMM hosted the first Cost, Quality, and Outcomes (CQO) Summit to bring healthcare thought leaders together to discuss particular supply chain issues and concerns. The results of those conversations were used to develop the first task force and to shape the agenda for the second CQO Summit, held in 2015. This white paper was written as a recap of the AHRMM17 CQO Summit, held in July 2017 in Washington, D.C.

In the spectrum of payment models, with fee-for service on one end and capitation on the other, bundled payments is somewhere in the middle. No single payment model has been completely successful in the past, but there is no dispute that cost reduction must be one of the primary goals of any model that all stakeholders can agree on. Download Article

Bundled payments provide a single payment for a defined episode of care that is shared among the caregivers involved in the delivery of care, with the risk shifting primarily to hospitals. The logic is that this will promote better care coordination among the various providers, while reducing wide variations in both the cost of care and how care is delivered. Download Article

By: Michael Deluca Download Article

Consumerism in healthcare has been on the rise as the impact of healthcare reform translates to narrower networks, higher deductibles and co-payments for patients, coupled with the shift toward value-based reimbursements for providers. With these changes, supply chain needs to work more closely with finance, clinicians, physicians, and health plans in this new healthcare economy. Download Article

An article from the November/December 2016 issue of the AHRMM member-only magazine, Supply Chain Strategies & Solutions. This article will discuss the shift from technology simply being used to source goods and services (i.e. reverse auctions, electronic RFPs/RFIs, online contract authoring) to how leading-edge technology is now used to enforce compliance and utilization of contracts. Download Article

In 2014, AHRMM hosted the first Cost, Quality, and Outcomes (CQO) Summit to bring healthcare thought leaders together and discuss particular supply chain issues and concerns. The results of those conversations were used to develop the first task force and to shape the agenda for the second CQO Summit, held in 2015.

By: Karen Conway Download Article

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Healthcare reform is driving unprecedented changes in the management, funding and delivery of care as hospitals develop and implement strategies to achieve higher quality care at lower cost. The problem many hospitals face involves the gaps in data between costly supplies, and how they are managed in the item master and chargemaster. Having links and systems in place to audit and validate the item to charge accuracy is crucial. Without this foundation, providers lose the ability to trust their physician quality outcome assessments and episodic care analytics.

This paper provides a case-study on what Banner has done to implement and continuously improve this initiative. Three key components to successful supply utilization savings are reviewed.

On August 8, 2011, the Association for Health Care Resource & Materials Management hosted an Executive Thought Leader Event, sponsored by VHA. Held during the AHRMM11 Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, 26 seasoned healthcare supply chain executives discussed a broad range of strategic issues and challenges confronting supply chain executives today.

Increasingly, the hospital and health care delivery system executives are viewing the supply chain as a strategic asset that can be leveraged to meet operational, clinical, and financial performance imperatives. This has not always been the case. For years, the supply chain was seen as little more than a necessary but ancillary function – to buy and deliver products as needed – with the primary supply chain improvement strategy focused on buying those products at the lowest price possible.

The paper presents healthcare supply chain tools and strategies for navigating the Cost, Quality, and Outcomes (CQO) Movement, and explores new initiatives designed to advance the supply chain from a transactional program to a strategic contributor to organizational success.

In 2015, AHRMM convened the AHRMM Thought Leader Task Force, an exploratory group tasked with uncovering applications of the Cost, Quality, and Outcomes (CQO) Movement across the healthcare field. The Task Force objectives were developed based on recommendations from the first ever Thought Leader Summit on CQO held at the 2014 AHRMM Conference and Exhibition.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Triple Aim is a framework developed to describe an approach to optimizing health system performance. The Triple Aim calls for:

An overview of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' three final rules for calendar year 2011 the outpatient prospective payment system and ambulatory surgical center rule, the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule rule and the Home Health PPS rule.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a VBP program to pay hospitals for their actual performance on quality measures, rather than just the reporting of those measures, beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2013. The VBP program will apply to all acute-care prospective payment system (PPS) hospitals. Read a summary of key provisions of the proposed rule.

This white paper explores the realities facing healthcare delivery, some of the new models being developed and what they could mean for the supply chain.