Why you should stop saying 'Volume to Value' in Healthcare (LinkedIn article by Mark Froimson, President, American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons)
Recently, I was on a panel addressing healthcare trends, and was asked to describe the current push for healthcare to move from volume to value. A fairly mundane, typical topic that I have addressed multiple times. But, this time I found myself feeling, and then telling a somewhat chagrined moderator, that this struck me as a silly question and that the phrase, ‘volume to value’, has been worn out and has lost its meaning. I probably won’t get invited back to that meeting, but it made me start to wonder: what does it mean and why do we keep using that phrase?
Don’t get me wrong, I have been in this dialogue long enough to understand the proposed purpose of the phrase and its reference to a more enlightened approach to paying providers. I understand that this is how we ‘save healthcare’ and achieve the ‘triple or quadruple aim.’ I understand that it refers to ACO’s in all their varieties and bundled payments and even to ‘value based purchasing.’ I know that we believe that the existing incentives are off and that by changing the i...
