Introducing Solutions: the PH Strategies blog
Introducing the PH Strategies blog: exploring how cross-sector collaboration — not just clinical care — drives better population health outcomes.
"Solution" is a funny word.
In common language, you probably think of a "solution" as the answer to a problem. In chemistry, a solution is something different: a substance that reflects a combination of two or more substances, creating a mixture that is often more useful than the individual components on their own.
I think about solutions a lot in the complex care space. Patients that have multiple health issues, or a health issue with multiple upstream drivers, can represent some of the most difficult challenges in healthcare. Treating one complex care patient is difficult enough. Having to manage groups of complex care patients can be a real problem.
That's where "solutions" come in. Think back to the chemistry example: a mixture of more than one substance to create something new. Increasingly, complex care means mixing both traditional medical care with other interventions: addressing health-related social needs, long-term supports and services, and caregivers with the support of community-based services. These collaborations -- or mixtures -- are crucial to solving population health challenges, just like the chemistry "solution" creates something that's more than just two substances thrown together.
Through this blog I plan to explore evidence-based strategies and new developments in the population health space, hopefully in easy-to-digest language, with a focus on how healthcare and other entities can work together to support population health.
I am guided by the Triple Aim -- better health, and a better care experience, at lower costs. After twenty years in government service, funding and overseeing federal and state health programs, I have found that the most successful health interventions are often the least expensive. The community health worker who helps address health-related social needs. The clinic with evening/weekend hours rather than the emergency room. The app available 24/7 rather than the doctor's office with a weeks-long wait for an appointment. Too often, "healthcare" has become synonymous with large, costly hospitals or the latest Pharma breakthrough drug. But there is more to healthcare than Big Medicine. That's what Population Health Strategies is all about.
Healthcare is one of the most expensive services in the entire country -- both for household and for government budgets. How do we take advantage of these lower cost, higher quality opportunities? How can everyone work together to make health, and healthcare, more effective and more affordable? Where we can we find the best solutions -- in both senses of the word?
That's my journey. I hope you'll join me.
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Andrew Brecher is a senior health policy strategist and trusted advisor with more than two decades of public sector experience supporting and overseeing health innovations. At CMS he served as innovation model lead working with hundreds of nursing homes nationwide to reduce avoidable hospitalizations and improve care for highly vulnerable populations. He later advised senior Biden Administration officials on accountable care models and policies for Medicare-Medicaid enrollees. His work has delivered measurable savings for taxpayers while driving durable, system-level reforms to address some of the nation’s most pressing healthcare challenges.