Healthcare at a Turning Point A Roadmap for Change

If the furious debate around the state of healthcare in the US has led to any consensus, it?s that the system should be delivering better quality for less cost than it does. The truth is that our healthcare system is a sprawling mix of competing interests in which those of the patient are valued least. Too much discussion has devolved to simplistic scapegoating, and too few comprehensive, constructive solutions have been offered. It?s time for a fresh vision.

In straightforward language, Healthcare at a Turning Point: A Roadmap for Change outlines a new market-based business model that aligns industry financing mechanisms with the goals of prevention, improved quality, and reduced costs. Drawing on more than 25 years of cross-industry consulting experience, the authors:

• Articulate a market-based vision of the industry
• Examine past efforts to reduce costs, their failures and their unanticipated consequences
• Spotlight perverse incentives that distort the way the healthcare system operates and make it less than it could be
• Present concrete recommendations for change within the healthcare delivery, insurance, pharmaceutical, device and diagnostics sectors
• Explain the changes that employers, consumers and policy makers can make to create a more customer-responsive system that delivers more value

For all the uncertainty in the current environment, there is also a rare opportunity to fundamentally redefine who wins in this market. Healthcare at a Turning Point provides guidance to executives ready for that contest as well as a roadmap for change.

A Vision for Tomorrow. Whose Agenda Controls Your Healthcare? In the Eye of the Storm: The Role of Consumers and Employers. Comparative Effectiveness Research: Creating an Environment for Change. Redesigning Healthcare Delivery: Hospitals Were Never Meant to Be Destinations of Choice. A Brave New World for Payers. Big Pharma: How to Regain Success. A New Day Is Dawning for Medical Device and Diagnostics Manufacturers. Putting Value at the Center of Healthcare. Creating a Roadmap for Change.

Rita E. Numerof, Ph.D., President of Numerof & Associates, Inc., is an internationally recognized consultant and author with more than twenty-five years of experience in the field of strategy development and execution, business model design, and market analysis. Her clients have included Fortune 500 companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Westinghouse, AstraZeneca, Merck, Abbott Laboratories, major healthcare institutions, payers, and government agencies. The focus of her consulting addresses the challenges of maintaining competitive advantage in highly dynamic and regulated markets.

Dr. Numerof has been a consistent advocate for the importance of strategic differentiation, organizational alignment of structure, competencies and metrics to ensure effective implementation, and anticipating, rather than reacting to industry trends. She’s been a pioneer in the area of economic and clinical value, anticipating the impact of changing global payer attitudes on the fundamental business model of the healthcare industry. Her work across the entire healthcare spectrum gives her a unique perspective on the challenges and needs of manufacturers, physicians, payers, and healthcare delivery institutions.

Under her leadership, NAI has developed proprietary approaches that provide precise insight and practical solutions to some of the industry’s most complex business challenges. Taking a systemic approach, Dr. Numerof has addressed such diverse issues as comparative effectiveness research, accountable care, bundled pricing, consumer engagement, operationalizing compliance and transparency, portfolio management and the identification of growth platforms that provide sustainable differentiation through economic and clinical value, and effective commercialization based on value propositions that matter to key constituencies.

Dr. Numerof is widely published in business journals and has authored five books. She serves as an