In most health care settings today, no one is accountable for all three dimensions of the IHI Triple Aim, although we need to address all three of the Triple Aim dimensions at the same time (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2015). Focus on only one or two of the elements in this framework aren’t enough to optimize the plan or be effective. Aligning with healthcare reform, this initiative with overarching aims may be the answer to Medicaid expansion, and therefore adapted healthcare system wide resulting positively. Currently driven by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), analytics, incentives, and regional control seem to be the most successful tactics at getting providers to implement best practices to reach the aims set forth. Meaningful Use, a Medicare initiative, and regional Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are two such methods that have helped CMS push the Triple Aim further. These methods are especially useful for patients who are recipients of Medicare or Medicaid coverage, as the federal government has helped to financially support the development of these programs. The Triple Aim is most certainly a strategic response, which has been difficult to implement. Through the ability to collect data, we now have a strong foundation in place for Triple Aim, …show more content…
The Institute for Health Technology Transformation (2012) states that the goal of population health management is to keep a patient population as healthy as possible, minimizing the need for expensive interventions such as emergency department visits, hospitalizations, imaging tests, and procedures (p. 7). Overcoming factors such as socioeconomic status and physical environment may be the most difficult, and have the most impact on the outcomes. This is why a distribution of outcomes is produced and analyzed, to evaluate how to continue to improve population health in areas where this is the case. However, organizations must also consider genetic endowment, spirituality, behavioral factors, physiologic factors, resilience, and disease and injury, in their intervention plans in order to treat a population. Taken together, these characteristics point to the importance of an epidemiological approach to managing population health that includes measuring inputs and outcomes, understanding how they are related, and setting priorities that consider population health production function (Stoto, 2013, p.