Transforming Healthcare: A Focus on Consumerism and Profitability

Shedding light on current transformations in payment mechanisms and transparency of hospital performance data and prices, this volume of Advances in Health Care Management presents findings on hospital profitability, cost, and organizational structures.

Divided into two sections: ’Reimbursement, Cost and Profitability’ and ’The Move Towards Transparency’, the chapters employ a variety of research methodologies to explore the impact of transformation in payment and debt structures, profitability, and horizontal or vertical integration on outcomes such as price, clinical outcomes, and health plan selection. The authors examine recent changes including the redesign of the U.S. health care system to achieve higher value, and the establishment of mechanisms that transform reimbursement models and promote consumerism through transparency of data. Additionally, the volume takes a look at the emerging trend of transparency between health care stakeholders such as patients, health care staff, hospitals, insurance companies, and the government, providing a valuable insight into how the future might look.

Jennifer L. Hefner is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Health Management and Policy, The Ohio State University. Her research focuses on applying management and organizational theories to the study of health care transformation.
Mona Al-Amin is an Associate Professor at the Healthcare Administration Department at Suffolk University. Her research focuses on the measurement and determinants of the performance of health care organizations.