Healthcare provider organizations have increased their embrace of population health management, according to HealthLeaders Media research. How they approach population health is strongly connected to leaders' strategic vision. One route is a clinical integration strategy, another to receive funding from federal programs, such as Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment. The choice of strategic pathways determines how a provider organization builds and executes a population health strategy, and is tightly bound with the governance process. Organizations are at different levels of sophistication in understanding what a PHM strategy requires, so leaders must think clearly about their strategy and ensure that tactics follow suit, or their efforts may flounder.
Philip Betbeze is the senior leadership editor at HealthLeaders.