Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-based Competition on Results

Coming to the topic from backgrounds in the area of industry and competition and business strategy, Porter (Harvard Business School) and Teisberg (Darden Graduate School of Business at the U. of Virginia) set out to explore why competition in the US health care sector has not led to greater efficiency and improved quality of service. They first came to the basic conclusion that skewed regulatory and private-sector incentives were driving undesirable results in terms of rising costs and later came to believe that the strategies, organizational structures, pricing approaches, and measurement approaches of various actors were distorting competition. Here they expand upon those basic findings (originally presented in the June 2004 Harvard Business Review) by developing the strategic and organizational implications for each of the major actors in the system and illustrating them with examples. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
The U.S. health care system is in crisis. At stake are the quality of care for millions of Americans and the financial well-being of individuals and employers squeezed by skyrocketing premiums?not to mention the stability of state and federal government budgets.In Redefining Health Care, internationally renowned strategy expert Michael Porter and innovation expert Elizabeth Teisberg reveal the underlying?and largely overlooked?causes of the problem, and provide a powerful prescription for change.The authors argue that competition currently takes place at the wrong level?among health plans, networks, and hospitals?rather than where it matters most, in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of specific health conditions. Participants in the system accumulate bargaining power and shift costs in a zero-sum competition, rather than creating value for patients. Based on an exhaustive study of the U.S. health care system, Redefining Health Care lays out a breakthrough framework for redefining the way competition in health care delivery takes place?and unleashing stunning improvements in quality and efficiency.With specific recommendations for hospitals, doctors, health plans, employers, and policy makers, this book shows how to move health care toward positive-sum competition that delivers lasting benefits for all.