Anesthesiology's Future with Specialists in Population Health

In population health medicine, often it is not primary care, but rather the specialists' care teams that are responsible for the most overall spending for health care. Engaging specialists in population health medicine is a prerequisite to be successful in improving the quality of care by reducing complications, unnecessary utilization, avoidable Emergency Department visits/readmissions, and total cost of care. Creating patient-centric, physician-lead, interdisciplinary care teams to redesign the delivery of care across the continuum of the episode of care (eg, shadow bundle) is a successful approach to commercial or Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services value-based payments.