Stephen Rosenthal Explains Ways Hospitals Can Shift from Volume to Value

Rethinking the ways in which hospitals get reimbursed and removing barriers to patient centered care are just 2 ways in which hospitals can consider moving from volume to value, said Stephen Rosenthal, senior vice president of population health management at the Montefiore Health System.

Transcript (slightly modified)

What do you think hospitals can do to ease the transition from volume to value?

Well, I think there needs to be a rethinking of how hospitals get reimbursed. So as you move to a value based program and many of the barriers that get put in place by regulation, like denials of payment for short stay cases, like the 2 midnight rule where a patients needs to stay in the hospital 2 midnights for that to be considered an appropriated admission. Remove those hurdles, those barriers, and allow the hospital to best manage the patient and change the way you pay the hospital.

So, if short stays are something you want to avoid, shift the dollar costs in a budget neutral way to those patients that truly need to be in the hospital who have a higher case weight or intensity of services needed so that the dollars are the same but there’s a focus on the individuals who need to be in the hospital versus perhaps moving those individuals out of the hospital setting, more into an ambulatory setting by changes in the way hospitals are reimbursed. Unfortunately, most organizations react to the financial constraints more quickly sometimes than some of the more social and/or population based strategy components.