Finding innovative ways to manage total cost of care

The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) is convening more than 450 participants, representing the leaders of the nation's preeminent healthcare provider organizations, at the IQL 2013 Annual Conference, September 25 - 27 at The Phoenician in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Under the theme "Managing the Total Cost of Care," the conference will demonstrate how AMGA member group leaders are finding innovative ways to manage the total cost of care, including new population health strategies that encompass new technology, data analytics, clinical process improvement, aligned compensation programs, and financial strategic planning to navigate the transition from volume to value.

In the opening plenary session, Harold D. Miller, executive director at the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, will explore 10 barriers to payment reform and provide suggestions and strategies to overcome them. Then Sue Knudson, vice president, health informatics at HealthPartners, will describe her group's balanced approach to affordability measurement, a strategy that has become a national model for success. Another general session wil host a panel discussing successful payment and service models that lower the total cost of care from the physician group, hospital, health plan, and employer perspectives. The conference will close with author Jim Carroll, who will explore future trends in health care and put into perspective why innovation is no longer just a fashionable phrase-it's the critical new leadership focus for executives in the healthcare industry.

Breakout session presentations will feature leaders from innovative groups presenting successful routes they have taken to lower costs by improving resource use or shifting to less expensive but equally effective resources. They will share their strategies for clinical and financial success, and provide tangible tools to aid medical groups and other organized systems of care in becoming a high-performing health systems. Reflecting the team-based approach that has guided their efforts, a series of provocative panel discussions will examine best practices in clinical care, provider engagement, shared decision making, and emerging payment models. Presenting AMGA members will include:

•Advocate Medical Group
•Billings Clinic
•Cleveland Clinic Health System
•Cornerstone Health Care
•Crystal Run Healthcare
•HealthPartners
•Holston Medical Group
•Mayo Clinic
•The Polyclinic
•Prevea Health
•PriMed Physicians
•Reliant Medical Group
•Sutter Health
•ThedaCare
•University of Michigan Health System
•University of Washington School of Medicine.

"These groups are committed to reforming our healthcare delivery system," said Donald W. Fisher, Ph.D., CAE, AMGA president and chief executive officer. "This meeting reveals the way many groups are forging ahead to create a health system that delivers real quality and value to patients. We are excited to hear how these groups are redefining what it means to be a high-performing health system."

The conference is an educational and networking event hosted by AMGA's Institute for Quality Leadership (IQL), devoted to improving the quality of care delivered in the U.S. healthcare system through the advancement of knowledge and the education of healthcare professionals.