What to look for when choosing healthcare

CNBC Sponsored Content—November 18, 2016

CNBC explores the importance of value when it comes to healthcare. Simply put, value means achieving the best possible outcome for patients at the lowest possible cost. For Louis A. Shapiro, president and CEO at HSS, value-based care offers a solution to the current healthcare crisis.

A focused approach is also important. "HSS probably has close to 20 sub-specialized, laser-focused entities, as opposed to other hospitals that are all lumped into one," said Todd J. Albert, MD, surgeon-in-chief at HSS. "If you do the same thing over and over, you naturally do it better and you find ways to improve that are so subtle. It also leads to amazing efficiency."

"It's helpful to think about value in terms of building blocks," said Catherine MacLean, MD, PhD, chief value medical officer at HSS. "And the building blocks of value go from procedures, which we do effectively and efficiently, to managing episodes of care, to driving appropriate utilization and prevention services in populations."

With an upcoming digital system that HSS is in the process of developing, healthcare providers will interact with the patient digitally and understand things like pre-existing conditions, health habits and more. "It would become an intelligent tool where we know the patient, just like they came here and got a complete history and physical," said Shapiro who added that the new business model will not only provide value for patients but will change the face of healthcare, making it more affordable and accessible.

World-renowned economist Clay Christensen notes that the focus of HSS is orthopedics. "If you need something fixed with your bone structure, they know better how to do it than any other entity on the planet," said Christensen. "They have a religious method to be sure that they make surgeries go as efficiently and perfectly as possible, and that's really critical. That provides a higher quality and lower cost."

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