{"title":"The Quest for Value in Canadian Healthcare: The Applied Value in Healthcare Framework.","authors":"Deirdre McCaughey, Gwen McGhan, Sumedh Bele, Nishan Sharma, Natalie C Ludlow","doi":"10.12927/hcpap.2019.26029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12927/hcpap.2019.26029","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The exponential rise in healthcare costs in developed nations has sharpened the need for greater \"value\" in healthcare. Porter's (2010) seminal work is one of the most cited definitions and equation for value-based care. The pursuit of greater value in our healthcare system is of paramount importance, yet translating value-based healthcare (VBHC) into a framework that can be effectively utilized in the Canadian system remains a challenge. To address this challenge, we propose that VBHC can be adapted to fit the Canadian healthcare system through (1) visionary leadership for and conceptualization of VBHC at the federal government level and (2) thoughtful application of VBHC at the provincial government level. Our applied value in healthcare framework serves as a platform from which VBHC initiatives, programs and outcome measures can be systematically organized and executed within provincial healthcare systems. This methodical approach could support both provincial ministries and their health systems in pursuit of VBHC and provide the basis for explicit measurement of VBHC success, thereby helping to address the pressing issue of sustainability of the Canadian healthcare system while optimizing patient-centred outcomes of care.</p>","PeriodicalId":35522,"journal":{"name":"Healthcare Papers","volume":"18 4","pages":"48-57"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"37511199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Healthcare PapersPub Date : 2018-04-01DOI: 10.12927/hcpap.2018.25573
Susan Chatwood
{"title":"Building on Primary Care Reforms and Indigenous Self-Determination in the Northwest Territories: Physician Accountability and Performance in Context.","authors":"Susan Chatwood","doi":"10.12927/hcpap.2018.25573","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12927/hcpap.2018.25573","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This commentary responds to Marchildon and Sherar's (2018) paper, \"Doctors and Canadian Medicare: Improving Accountability and Performance,\" in which they explore questions around governance and physician accountability in Canada. This response situates the issues raised in a northern context by sharing experiences with primary care reform in the Northwest Territories and exploring the implications these changes have had for physician accountability and reported system improvements. Physician leadership and accountability are further explored in the northern context, where health systems for Indigenous communities include multiple jurisdictions and transitions in governance advance the self-government, land claims and treaty rights of Indigenous peoples.</p>","PeriodicalId":35522,"journal":{"name":"Healthcare Papers","volume":"17 4","pages":"70-76"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"36562684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Healthcare PapersPub Date : 2018-04-01DOI: 10.12927/hcpap.2018.25575
Tom McIntosh
{"title":"From Autonomous Gatekeepers to System Stewards: Can the Alberta Agreement Change the Role of Physicians in Canadian Medicare?","authors":"Tom McIntosh","doi":"10.12927/hcpap.2018.25575","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12927/hcpap.2018.25575","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Marchildon and Sherar's (2018) \"Doctors and Canadian Medicare\" presents a specific dilemma for healthcare reform: the ability of physicians to negotiate ever-increasing incomes without reference to the consequences to healthcare costs or provincial budgeting. This commentary situates that discussion in the broader debate of the challenges to healthcare reform as exemplified by studies such as Paradigm Freeze (Lazar et al. 2013) and the ability of provincial medical associations to act as both system insiders (gatekeepers) and outsiders (with no responsibility for system finances). The resolution to this dilemma may be to follow the lead of the Alberta government by negotiating a stewardship role for physicians that requires them to take broader governmental goals into account. There is evidence to suggest that physicians may be the best actors to insist on and enforce changes in physician behaviour. Furthermore, adding physicians as stewards of the system may help create better checks and balances in the currently dysfunctional dynamics between federal and provincial stewards.</p>","PeriodicalId":35522,"journal":{"name":"Healthcare Papers","volume":"17 4","pages":"56-62"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"36562682","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Healthcare PapersPub Date : 2018-04-01DOI: 10.12927/hcpap.2018.25571
Gregory P Marchildon, Michael Sherar
{"title":"Value for Money through Effective Stewardship.","authors":"Gregory P Marchildon, Michael Sherar","doi":"10.12927/hcpap.2018.25571","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12927/hcpap.2018.25571","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The respondents all raised valuable, informative points in response to our Invited Essay. There was convergence around the need to alter governance structures at the same time as payment arrangements for physicians to achieve higher-performing health systems within Canada. At the same time, there were different views on how best to address the disconnect between levels of physician remuneration and accountability for healthcare performance and delivery. In addition to ongoing efforts to improve governance, such as the recent amendments to the government-physician agreement in Alberta, individual provincial governments can and should take the lead in initiating and evaluating further payment and governance experiments.</p>","PeriodicalId":35522,"journal":{"name":"Healthcare Papers","volume":"17 4","pages":"88-92"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"36550152","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Healthcare PapersPub Date : 2018-04-01DOI: 10.12927/hcpap.2018.25574
Jack M Mintz
{"title":"Canada's Ailing Healthcare System: It's the Doctors' Fault?","authors":"Jack M Mintz","doi":"10.12927/hcpap.2018.25574","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12927/hcpap.2018.25574","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Marchildon and Sherar (2018) paper provides some useful insights: the role of primary care, improved approaches to physician compensation and the importance of accountability and governance. But their approach of focusing on doctors, including their compensation, misses the boat. Canada's healthcare system needs a major overhaul to improve integration and reward good performance for patient care going beyond medical practitioner compensation.</p>","PeriodicalId":35522,"journal":{"name":"Healthcare Papers","volume":"17 4","pages":"63-69"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"36562683","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Healthcare PapersPub Date : 2018-04-01DOI: 10.12927/hcpap.2018.25579
Audrey Laporte
{"title":"Physician Service Costs: Is There Blame to Share Around?","authors":"Audrey Laporte","doi":"10.12927/hcpap.2018.25579","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12927/hcpap.2018.25579","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The rising portion of national income devoted to healthcare in general and the portion allocated to physician services have been a focus of the health policy literature for some time. Greater recognition should be given to the fact that the observed trends in physician service expenditures are the product of the interaction between physicians and provincial governments. Improving the productivity of healthcare systems in the delivery of high-quality primary care will require moving beyond simple oversight to deeper engagement with physicians as partners in system improvement.</p>","PeriodicalId":35522,"journal":{"name":"Healthcare Papers","volume":"17 4","pages":"28-31"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"36562678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Healthcare PapersPub Date : 2018-04-01DOI: 10.12927/hcpap.2018.25578
Lawrence Rosenberg
{"title":"Healthcare Delivery and Physician Accountability in Quebec: A System Ready for Change.","authors":"Lawrence Rosenberg","doi":"10.12927/hcpap.2018.25578","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12927/hcpap.2018.25578","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In hindsight, there have been unintended systemic consequences stemming from the traditional roles physicians have assumed and the structures within which they have been permitted to organize themselves. It is critical that the national discussion take account of this because we must reconcile ourselves to the current reality in which all other allied healthcare professionals are practising at \"the top of their licence.\" Furthermore, the pace of technological change, especially the deciphering of the genome and the digitalization of virtually everything, has engendered a revolution characterized by the democratization of knowledge and technology, so that the point of care will be wherever the patient is. Dysfunctional reimbursement schemes and a lack of accountability are merely symptoms of a system that must change.</p>","PeriodicalId":35522,"journal":{"name":"Healthcare Papers","volume":"17 4","pages":"32-40"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"36562679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Healthcare PapersPub Date : 2018-04-01DOI: 10.12927/hcpap.2018.25577
Richard H Glazier, Tara Kiran
{"title":"Doctors and Canadian Medicare: Improving System Performance Requires System Change.","authors":"Richard H Glazier, Tara Kiran","doi":"10.12927/hcpap.2018.25577","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12927/hcpap.2018.25577","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Many of the issues raised and insights provided by Marchildon and Sherar (2018) in their essay on doctors and Canadian medicare are on target. The inadequacy of available data on physician payment, however, calls into question the robustness of some interprovincial comparisons, and when it comes to compensation, comparisons to US physicians would be most relevant. In contrast to their assertion of a steadily increasing growth rate in physician expenditure, a more recent and longer view shows historically low growth in the past few years. Furthermore, the blame assigned to physicians and their medical associations needs to be shared with governments and most of all could be attributed to the lack of system structures and supports for improvement. New governance arrangements at the group or regional levels are needed but are insufficient in themselves. The additional features embodied in the Patient's Medical Home are essential for advancing primary care. Going even further, full population registration, greater availability of alternate payment arrangements, active participation of physicians in healthcare administration and support for meaningful measurement and feedback loops are among the changes required to transform Canadian medicare.</p>","PeriodicalId":35522,"journal":{"name":"Healthcare Papers","volume":"17 4","pages":"41-47"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"36562680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Healthcare PapersPub Date : 2018-04-01DOI: 10.12927/hcpap.2018.25572
Lars Nielsen, Arthur Sweetman
{"title":"Measuring Physicians' Incomes with a Focus on Canadian-Controlled Private Corporations.","authors":"Lars Nielsen, Arthur Sweetman","doi":"10.12927/hcpap.2018.25572","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12927/hcpap.2018.25572","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Understanding physician remuneration and its growth is extremely complex, much more so than for a typical worker. Highlighting one narrow aspect of this issue, this paper focuses on governments' increased incentives for physicians to incorporate and the ensuing physician response in the period 1996-2011. Nationally, incorporation rates increased for both general practitioners and specialists between 1996 and 2011. We observe that the largest changes in provincial regulation were in Ontario, and incorporation increased from 18% in 2001 to 54% five years later. Incorporation is less common in Quebec, where the incentives were the weakest. Married male physicians, middle-aged physicians (regardless of sex), physicians with higher incomes and physicians born outside of Canada are all more likely to incorporate their practices. On average, incorporated physicians realized a 4% reduction in personal income taxes and accumulated retained earnings of at least $10,000 per annum in their Canadian-controlled private corporations in our data period. The benefits of incorporation stem largely from retained earnings and income splitting. Many physicians benefit from one or both; however, the benefits of incorporation are not equally distributed. Sex, marital status and income affect the magnitude of the financial benefit of incorporation.</p>","PeriodicalId":35522,"journal":{"name":"Healthcare Papers","volume":"17 4","pages":"77-86"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"36562685","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Healthcare PapersPub Date : 2018-04-01DOI: 10.12927/hcpap.2018.25580
Gregory P Marchildon, Michael Sherar
{"title":"Doctors and Canadian Medicare: Improving Accountability and Performance.","authors":"Gregory P Marchildon, Michael Sherar","doi":"10.12927/hcpap.2018.25580","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12927/hcpap.2018.25580","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Physician compensation has been a rapidly growing segment of healthcare costs in Canada since the late 1990s. In comparative terms, Canadian physicians are now well compensated compared to physicians in other high-income countries. This has caused provincial governments to begin constraining physician remuneration. However, physician payment should be examined in a larger governance context, including the potentially changing role of physicians, as provincial governments try to improve quality, increase coordination and improve overall health system performance. Although limited progress has been made through primary care reforms in a few jurisdictions, substantive improvement has been hampered by a misalignment between the policy goals and intentions of provincial governments and existing governance and accountability structures. This creates an environment in which both administrators and physicians feel they have limited input or control, seeding an adversarial rather than a collaborative relationship. Effective reform will require addressing governance and accountability at the same time as physician payment.</p>","PeriodicalId":35522,"journal":{"name":"Healthcare Papers","volume":"17 4","pages":"14-26"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"36562252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}