FACT SHEET: People Demand Better Care from the Health Care System

How Innovation Drives A Patient-Centered Health Care Vision

Across demographics, people have a clear vision that primary care in the U.S. should be affordable, accessible, and convenient. However, the health care system is not realizing this vision. Health care costs continue to rapidly rise and directly impact every decision people make about their care, including the decision to delay or skip care altogether. Our nation’s dependence on the costly fee-for-service system, in which providers are paid for the volume of services they deliver instead of the quality of care they provide, is partly to blame. People are becoming increasingly frustrated with a fee-for-service system that fails to deliver on the basic promise of affordable, quality health care. Policymakers must move toward a patient-first care system to respond to people’s real needs, improve health outcomes, and lower costs for all.

United States of Care (USofCare) examined two state models pioneering patient-first care: the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model and the Arkansas Health Care Payment Improvement Initiative. It is already evident that these models delivered positive results by prioritizing quality of care over quantity of services. Patient-first care drives better health outcomes, improves patient-provider relationships, reduces costs for beneficiaries, and gives providers and hospitals more financial stability.

The fact sheet below from USofCare summarizes these findings and illustrates how people across the country experience fee-for-service and patient-first care.