Perspectives on efficiency and quality in an ever changing system: Healthcare 2010

The Healthcare 2010 conference at the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale in April focused on how different stakeholders in the healthcare industry can excel in light of the recent landmark health-reform bill. A session titled "Maintaining Efficiency and Quality in an Ever Changing System" provided valuable insights into several perceptions of these two tenets, with respect to both the current state of U.S. healthcare and the recent reform. The engaging dialog that ensued concerning payer, provider, public, and patient perspectives yielded a unique view of the dynamic interplay between efficiency and quality in the context of the current healthcare system. While the discussion highlighted differences in the definitions of efficiency and quality upheld by the various players, a unifying theme emerged: In order to excel in this ever changing system, incentive structures will have to evolve to take full advantage of the potential synergies between the two.