Should "Value" Be the New Mantra in Health Care?

In a guest post on the Harvard Business Review blog, Commonwealth Fund president David Blumenthal and senior researcher Kristof Stremikis write that while "putting value at the forefront of health care reform may seem obvious and non-controversial," a number of challenges need to be met before we can "turn the promise of value measurement into the reality of better care at lower cost." What seems special about it is that, seemingly simple, it is actually complex and subtle. Under its umbrella, a wide range of interested parties can find the things they hold most dear, from improved patient outcomes to coordination of care to efficiency to patient-centeredness. And it is intuitively appealing. As Thomas Lee noted in the New England Journal of Medicine, "no one can oppose this goal and expect long-term success." The question, of course, is whether the term will help spur the fundamental changes that our health care sector so desperately needs. In this regard, a closer examination of the value concept confirms its appeal but also exposes the daunting challenges facing health system reformers.