Seemed Like a Good Idea: Alchemy Versus Evidence-Based Approaches to Health Care Management Innovation

Consumers, public officials, and even managers of health care and insurance are unhappy about care quality, access, and costs. This book shows that is because efforts to do something about these problems often rely on hope or conjecture, not rigorous evidence of effectiveness. In this book, experts in the field separate the speculative from the proven with regard to how care is rendered, how patients can be in control, how providers should be paid, and how disparities can be reduced – and they also identify the issues for which evidence is currently missing. It provides an antidote to frustration and a clear-eyed guide for forward progress, helping health care and insurance innovators make better decisions on deciding whether to go ahead now based on current evidence, to seek and wait for additional evidence, or to move on to different ideas. It will be useful to practitioners in hospital systems, medical groups, and insurance organizations and can also be used in executive and MBA teaching.

Mark Pauly is Bendheim Professor in the Department of Health Care Management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Flaura Winston is Professor of Pediatrics and Distinguished Chair in the Department of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. She is Director of the Innovation Ecosystem and Scientific Co-Director of the Center for Injury Research and Prevention, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, PA, and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Mary Naylor is Marian S. Ware Professor in Gerontology and Director of the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

Kevin Volpp is Director of the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics, Health Policy Division Chief of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, and the Founders President's Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Medical Ethics and Policy, and Health Care Management, at the Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School, all at the University of Pennsylvania.

Lawton Robert Burns is James Joo-Jin Kim Professor of Health Care Management at the Wharton School and Co-Director of the Roy & Diana Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management, all at the University of Pennsylvania.