System Partnerships between Medical Device Companies and Health Care Providers

Titelangaben

Ludwig, Elisabeth:
System Partnerships between Medical Device Companies and Health Care Providers.
In: Schmid, Andreas ; Singh, Simone (Hrsg.): Crossing Borders - Innovation in the U.S. Health Care System. - Bayreuth : P.C.O. , 2017 . - S. 149-161 . - (Schriften zur Gesundheitsökonomie ; 84 )
ISBN 978-3-941678-63-7

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Abstract

The American health care system has some of the worst quality outcomes and highest costs internationally. In order to address these issues, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) was passed in 2015 by Congress. MACRA is a new value- and quality-based payment model which rewards providers for high quality care and penalizes providers with low quality outcomes. Under the law, two health care payment models, the Merit-based Incentive Payment System and Alternative Payment Models, put patients as the focus to promote patient-centered health care. Providers have difficulties adapting to these new models, but through system partnerships they can be supported. System partnerships are relationships between medical device companies and providers which are more than common customer-vendor relationships. In fact, system partnerships aim to develop complex treatment solutions together. This paper reviews whether system partnerships can effectively lower costs and improve the quality of health care systems. In addition, the advantages of the system partnerships, such as digitalization, are compared to the risks they pose to patients and providers, such as information asymmetries. At present, analysis of these factors shows that the advantages outweigh the risks. Therefore, the use of system partnerships as a means to lower costs and improve quality is recommended.