Harkness Project Title: What Motivates Behaviors within Accountable Care Organizations to Improve Care and Reduce Costs for High-Need, High-Cost Patients?
Mentor: Stephen M. Shortell, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.B.A. (University of California, Berkeley)
Placement: University of California, Berkeley
Biography at time of Harkness Fellowship: Madeleine Phipps-Taylor, M.Eng., a 2014–15 U.K. Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice, is strategy lead in the Policy and Strategy Unit of the Care Quality Commission. Previously, as senior policy advisor in the Policy Unit of the Prime Minister’s office, she advised Prime Minister David Cameron on the NHS, public health, adult social care, and life sciences. Specifically, she was a key contributor to the government’s G8 Dementia Summit. Other past positions have included associate consultant at the Boston Consulting Group and policy advisor in the Implementation Unit, Cabinet Office, HM Government. Her research interests include the design of health care systems, incentives, regulation, and quality. She received her master of engineering degree from the University of Oxford in biomedical engineering with economics and management.
Project: Success of accountable care organizations (ACOs) in achieving the triple aim of improved outcomes, better patient satisfaction, and lower costs will require providers of the networks to be motivated to change and improve the care they provide. Maddy’s project seeks to build a framework for understanding the use of motivators to achieve the triple aim as ACOs’ networks evolve and mature. A case study approach with mixed methods—consisting of an evidence review, analysis of available survey data, and semistructured interviews—will be employed to conduct an in-depth analysis of four organizations. The full range of motivators used, the mechanisms for using these motivators (e.g., metrics, electronic records, peer comparisons, referral behavior tracking) and the anticipated further development in the medium term will be explored for each case study. A greater understanding of the current use of motivators, and the potential direction for development, will be useful primarily to leaders of ACOs but also to policymakers aiming to achieve the triple aim through the use of ACO programs.
Career Activity since Fellowship:
- Interim Director, Strategy and Business Development, SuperCarers, 2015
- Policy & Strategy Advisor, Care Quality Commission, 2016
Current Position: Director, Strategic Programmes, Allocate Software (updated 11/2016)
Email: [email protected]
Harkness Related Publications:
M. Phipps-Taylor, S.M. Shortell. “More than money: motivating change within Accountable Care Organizations,” Milbank Quarterly, 2016.
