Health Delivery Performance

Strategic Pillar Overview

How can firms and workers that operate within the health sector deliver the most health for the costs they incur? We address this question through interdisciplinary teams that consider management, operations, marketing, workforce optimization and the role of policy and payment in shaping the incentives that reward value and performance.

Highlights

News

Setting a New Agenda for Medicare’s Post-Acute Care Payment Policy

By Kathryn E. Linehan, Medicare Policy Director, Center for Health Systems and Policy Modeling

The Hopkins Business of Health Initiative hosted a panel on October 8, 2025, titled “Setting a New Agenda for Medicare’s Post-Acute Care Payment Policy” as part of the Future of Health Care Delivery Nexus Convening Series. The panel brought together leading researchers, David Grabowski, PhD (Harvard Medical School), R. Tamara Konetzka, PhD (University of Chicago), and Anne Deutsch, RN, PhD (RTI International/Northwestern University), and was moderated by Kathryn Linehan, MPH. They discussed how Medicare’s post-acute care payment systems can better balance fiscal sustainability and patient needs as Medicare Advantage continues to reshape the delivery landscape.

Publication

Improving Transitions of Care from the ED for Older adults: Emerging Ideas and the Need for Coherent Outcome Definitions

Transitions of care from the emergency department (ED) represent a period of heightened vulnerability for older adults, driven by medical complexity, functional impairment, and social factors.

Publication

Medicare Advantage Star Rating Quality Gains Were Concentrated In A Narrow Set Of Clinical And Medication Measures, 2015–25

The Medicare Advantage Star Ratings program has operated for decades and directs billions of dollars in quality bonus payments, yet little is known about which measures have driven observed performance improvement over time.

Publication

Beyond The Global Budget: Maryland's Next Chapter Must Engage Clinicians

The authors argue that Maryland's next phase of payment reform must move beyond hospital global budgets to engage frontline clinicians in population health, outlining priorities for the new AHEAD model including population-based payments, expanded incentives, and regulatory modernization.

Publication

Scarcity and Health Inequality: Evidence from Liver Transplantation

We study how reduced scarcity affects racial disparities in liver transplantation.

Publication

Patient Preferences for Dementia Interventions: A Scoping Review With a Systematic Review of Medications and Choice-Based Methods

Despite emerging treatment options for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD), patient preferences for treatment and care remain poorly understood.

Publication

Examining the Relationship Between Hospital Community Benefits and Community Social Vulnerability

One objective of hospital community benefit spending is to enhance community health, especially for vulnerable groups.

Publication

Provider, Interdisciplinary Staff, and Patient Perspectives on the Potential for Cognitive Assessment and Care Plan Services in Primary Care

n 2017, Medicare introduced the cognitive assessment and care plan (CACP) billing code to incentivize comprehensive care for people living with dementia.

Events

Aligning Mission and Margin in Healthcare: A Conversation with Halle Tecco

Expert Panelist: Halle Tecco

Publication

Policy brief: ambient AI scribes and the coding arms race

Ambient AI “digital scribes” are rapidly moving into routine practice, easing documentation burden and physician burnout.