Outcomes and Quality: Key Characteristics of a Successful SLP Value Journey

We are living in a challenging era of healthcare reform marked by dramatic change and unprecedented political and legal turmoil surrounding this reform. Healthcare reform in the name of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, 2010) is becoming “hardwired” over the five years since its inception, yet as recently as March of 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States heard arguments to roll back subsidies for the Federal Health Exchanges which if approved could increase insurance rates by nearly 75% on over 8 million subscribers. The national healthcare landscape including reforms, changes, wins, and losses to date will be described. The “secret sauce” for meeting these challenges is to embrace value in healthcare which can be defined as outcomes over cost. In the context of our current levels of care, an inexorable movement away from volume to value will be described focusing on outcomes. The challenges we face especially in reporting outcomes and shifting from volume to value are described. Finally, arguments and illustrations are provided for how speech-language pathologists (SLPs) can continue to espouse value in becoming critical players in the value-based healthcare economy.