The Evolving Health Care Landscape

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), signed into law in March 2010, has significantly altered our discussions about the future role of cardiovascular (CV) care in the evolving health care landscape. New terms such as accountable care organization and payment bundling have permanently entered the vernacular, whereas traditional concepts such as quality have taken on greater importance given the federal government’s intent to drive behavior with a quality-based carrot-and-stick rewards system for health care providers. This is particularly relevant to CV care as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and others involved in the health policy discussion often use CV examples to show the opportunities for care process improvement. This article will briefly examine the changing landscape by defining three important new features of health care reform, highlighting real-world experience with these concepts, and offering some suggestions on how we might move forward in this new environment.