Cathy Schoen, Vice President, The Commonwealth Fund

    This session will present results of a national scorecard on US health system performance (health outcomes, quality, access, efficiency, and equity) that compares national performance to benchmarks drawn from within the US or internationally. Low scores on key indicators — with particularly low scores for efficiency — point to substantial opportunities to improve with strategic actions that take a coherent, whole system view based on an understanding of how access, quality, and efficiency interact. The session will also discuss implications for health care policy and changes at the local practice level.
    After this presentation you will be able to:

• Define a high performance health system and examine key areas where US performance falls short.
• Identify opportunities and private and public strategic policies, including health insurance, integrated systems and financial incentives, that could achieve net gains in access, quality, and efficiency.