Elizabeth Mitchell Explains the Goals of NRHI's Total of Care Project

The Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement (NRHI) has been leading a project to measure and report on total cost of care across different regions, and the end result could inform payment change, care delivery design, and health policy, explained Elizabeth Mitchell, president and CEO of NRHI.

Transcript

What is the Total Cost of Care project and its goals?

The Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement has been leading a multi-year project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to measure and report on the total cost of care and resource use across originally 5 sites, now 7, and we have 4 in the queue. So these are statewide initiatives in different areas of the country that are seeking to standardize measurement so that we can actually look across regions and understand differences in not only utilization but actually total cost.

Ultimately, we'll be able to benchmark and really use that to inform payment change, care delivery redesign, and policy. So it is an important piece of transparency, particularly as we move to population-based payment models to really understand: what is the impact on total cost?

We talk about squeezing the balloon and total cost is the whole balloon. So if we see that we're making an impact there, I think it will be a critical signal that we are moving in the right direction.