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Lynne Rothney-Kozlak, M.P.H., an adjunct instructor for the School of Community and Population Health and president of Rothney-Kozlak Consulting, LLC, recently published an article titled “Patient Reported Measures: The Next Frontier of Provider Accountability.” The article was written for the fall 2013 edition of Premier Healthcare Solutions’ (a member-owned national alliance of over 2,500 non-profit health systems) Economic Outlook journal.

Rothney-Kozlak’s believes that patients’ perspective on their health status and the effectiveness of the health care they receive has increasingly been the focus of the health policy community. While patient advocates have certainly succeeded at shining a light on what is needed within transformative efforts to better support patients, health services research has demonstrated that more engaged patients do better at managing their diseases and well-being on their own. This usually translates to more appropriate utilization patterns, less unnecessary in-patient services, better health outcomes, and more satisfied patients.

Over time, purchasers and accreditors of health care services have escalated their expectations that provider performance evaluation includes the patients’ experience, as captured through surveys.  As such, these patient-centered policies will have an ever greater impact on how health care services are contracted for and reimbursed. The triad of improving health, patient experience, and cost of care is the root of how providers will be held accountable in the future.

Given that backdrop, Rothney-Kozlak’s article explores the context of patient reported measures, the current landscape with respect to provider accountability for patients’ holistic health and experience, the complexity of data collection methodology considerations, and what the future likely holds.

 (pages 26-31).