Independent Physician Association

Many U.S. physicians own their own practices. That number will continue to increase over the next decade. However, health institutes need to remember that physicians do not spontaneously become cost and quality champions. Instead, health system leaders need to dig deeper to understand the unique clinical and financial factors as well as key priorities that inform and motivate physician decision-making process. This is particularly true since physicians are responsible for up to 85 percent of a health system’s cost and quality decisions.

Independent Physicians Associations (IPA) want the total picture. This includes the clinical evidence to choose cost-effective drug and device alternatives without negatively affecting outcomes with exposure to cost data, variation data and practice guidelines.  Careave can help IPAs in the following ways:

1. Set benchmarks to help keep you focused on your goals: Care quality, patient outcomes and cost data should be bench-marked on current evidence-based guidelines and captured in a consistent and usable format
2. Collect and manage more data with increasingly sophisticated analytics: Managing the abundance of data involved in improving the care you provide. Cost and quality data have the potential to dramatically change how you practice medicine, since having access to that data leads to improved treatment choices and better outcomes.
3. Value Driven Care: As healthcare moves toward value-driven care, physicians and health systems must collaborate to increase care quality and drive cost effectiveness. Taking active steps now to increase physician involvement to meet these goals will only help health systems and physicians do all they can to meet these quality improvement goals together.