Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

Implementing strategies to encourage patient accountability

Miles Snowden, MD
Policy
January 18, 2012
Share
Tweet
Share

While payers and providers are usually in the spotlight when it comes to accountable care, the most successful models will be the ones that place a strong focus on patient accountability. More and more frequently patients are selecting doctors with the best outcomes, asking proactive questions, and taking an active role in their lifestyle and behaviors. Empowering patients with the support and tools to be responsible for and more involved in their own health is critical to improving outcomes and reducing costs as part of any accountable care environment.

Currently, patients navigate the medical system to achieve the best outcome in the shortest amount of time, but physicians are incentivized to provide more services. If the decision-making process of the physician and patient are not fully aligned, then it is not reasonable to deploy a strategy focused solely on stimulating greater accountability in the patient. An alignment of goals for the highest quality and most financially efficient care can help to ensure patients are never in a position to make a health decision against the advice of their physician. The burden of responsibility has to be directed equally at all stakeholders. Once alignment is established, strategies to stimulate greater patient accountability can be deployed.

Establishing a primary care relationship is key for patients because it provides them with the opportunity to view care more holistically, gain a better understanding of medical alternatives, and feel supported by an advocate for better personal health. Group visits can also encourage patient accountability by allowing patients to connect with others who have similar conditions, and providing physicians with an opportunity to educate and promote better overall patient health. In addition these strategies, tools to enable patient engagement are paramount. I’ve bucketed these accountability enablers into three categories:

  • Demand management: Stakeholders too often demand a greater intensity or frequency of service than necessary to achieve clinical success—experiencing more readmissions, ER visits, and MRI or CT scans than needed for example. It may sound simple, but asking discharged patients questions such as “Where will you go post discharge?”, “Are you certain any equipment or physical therapy has been arranged?” and “How can we reach you?” counters some of the system inefficiencies and better moderates unnecessary demand in the medical system. In fact, such efforts can cut in half the readmit rates.
  • Population management: According to a commercial insured 2010 population analysis, half of high cost claimants had minimal to no engagement with the delivery system in the prior year, indicating that providers need to better engage with individuals who are not active in the system, not just at the point of care. This is a significant challenge that can be overcome by partnering with organizations that specialize in identifying and engaging individuals who will become future sources of medical costs. It is particularly important for providers to reach out to individuals with a low intensity of need that don’t consider themselves patients and individuals with immobility or lack of access to care.
  • Network management: Oftentimes, individuals choose to access care at the wrong place. Transparency of information on physicians and specialists ensures that patients are receiving the best care at the lowest cost. By facilitating transparency providers can influence patients’ decisions, increase patient involvement and open the door for better communication across the care continuum.

All patients across the care continuum need to be participants in their own care, and providers should be implementing strategies to encourage this accountability both at the point of care and, more importantly, once the patient goes home. The focus should not be directly on changing a physician’s practice or reducing a hospital’s patient load, but instead on implementing an accountability model that aligns both physician and patient expectations to improve the health care system as a whole.

Miles Snowden is Chief Medical Officer of OptumHealth.

Submit a guest post and be heard on social media’s leading physician voice.

Prev

USA Today column: How doctor-patient communication can reduce lawsuits

January 18, 2012 Kevin 2
…
Next

Sleep deprivation as a medical student

January 18, 2012 Kevin 10
…

Tagged as: Patients, Public Health & Policy

Post navigation

< Previous Post
USA Today column: How doctor-patient communication can reduce lawsuits
Next Post >
Sleep deprivation as a medical student

ADVERTISEMENT

More in Policy

  • Bundled payments in Medicare: Will fixed pricing reshape surgery costs?

    AMA Committee on Economics and Quality in Medicine, Medical Student Section
  • Who gets to be well in America: Immigrant health is on the line

    Joshua Vasquez, MD
  • Online eye exams spark legal battle over health care access

    Joshua Windham, JD and Daryl James
  • The One Big Beautiful Bill and the fragile heart of rural health care

    Holland Haynie, MD
  • Why health care leaders fail at execution—and how to fix it

    Dave Cummings, RN
  • Healing the doctor-patient relationship by attacking administrative inefficiencies

    Allen Fredrickson
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Who gets to be well in America: Immigrant health is on the line

      Joshua Vasquez, MD | Policy
    • Why specialist pain clinics and addiction treatment services require strong primary care

      Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD | Conditions
    • Harassment and overreach are driving physicians to quit

      Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD | Physician
    • Why peer support can save lives in high-pressure medical careers

      Maire Daugharty, MD | Conditions
    • When a medical office sublease turns into a legal nightmare

      Ralph Messo, DO | Physician
    • Addressing menstrual health inequities in adolescents

      Callia Georgoulis | Conditions
  • Past 6 Months

    • Forced voicemail and diagnosis codes are endangering patient access to medications

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Meds
    • How President Biden’s cognitive health shapes political and legal trust

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • Why are medical students turning away from primary care? [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The One Big Beautiful Bill and the fragile heart of rural health care

      Holland Haynie, MD | Policy
    • Who gets to be well in America: Immigrant health is on the line

      Joshua Vasquez, MD | Policy
    • Why “do no harm” might be harming modern medicine

      Sabooh S. Mubbashar, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • Deep transcranial magnetic stimulation for depression [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • How declining MMR vaccination rates put future generations at risk

      Ambika Sharma, Onyi Oligbo, and Katrina Green, MD | Conditions
    • The physician who turned burnout into a mission for change

      Jessie Mahoney, MD | Physician
    • Time theft: the unseen harm of abusive oversight

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • How one unforgettable ER patient taught a nurse about resilience

      Kristen Cline, BSN, RN | Conditions
    • The future of clinical care: AI’s role in easing physician workload

      Michael Wakeman | Tech

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 2 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Who gets to be well in America: Immigrant health is on the line

      Joshua Vasquez, MD | Policy
    • Why specialist pain clinics and addiction treatment services require strong primary care

      Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD | Conditions
    • Harassment and overreach are driving physicians to quit

      Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD | Physician
    • Why peer support can save lives in high-pressure medical careers

      Maire Daugharty, MD | Conditions
    • When a medical office sublease turns into a legal nightmare

      Ralph Messo, DO | Physician
    • Addressing menstrual health inequities in adolescents

      Callia Georgoulis | Conditions
  • Past 6 Months

    • Forced voicemail and diagnosis codes are endangering patient access to medications

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Meds
    • How President Biden’s cognitive health shapes political and legal trust

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • Why are medical students turning away from primary care? [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The One Big Beautiful Bill and the fragile heart of rural health care

      Holland Haynie, MD | Policy
    • Who gets to be well in America: Immigrant health is on the line

      Joshua Vasquez, MD | Policy
    • Why “do no harm” might be harming modern medicine

      Sabooh S. Mubbashar, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • Deep transcranial magnetic stimulation for depression [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • How declining MMR vaccination rates put future generations at risk

      Ambika Sharma, Onyi Oligbo, and Katrina Green, MD | Conditions
    • The physician who turned burnout into a mission for change

      Jessie Mahoney, MD | Physician
    • Time theft: the unseen harm of abusive oversight

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • How one unforgettable ER patient taught a nurse about resilience

      Kristen Cline, BSN, RN | Conditions
    • The future of clinical care: AI’s role in easing physician workload

      Michael Wakeman | Tech

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Implementing strategies to encourage patient accountability
2 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...