A male paramedic performs a procedure on a man.

HEALTH SYSTEMS

In collaboration with healthcare providers, payers, policymakers, and consumer groups, we are working to help ensure that everyone in America receives the right care at the right price and improve overall health outcomes nationwide. This requires a commitment to equity to ensure everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible.

A New Model for Managing Healthcare

Historically, healthcare providers in the United States bill patients and their insurers for each appointment, treatment, and procedure, for example. This is called a fee-for-service model. Evidence is growing, however, that rewarding the quantity, not the quality or efficiency of the medical care, is leading to poor health outcomes. Perhaps it’s time to change the model to healthcare reward quality and value. 

Poor health outcomes stemming from a fee-for-service model gave rise to a movement committed to advancing new healthcare management models for healthcare payment. For example, a new model would instead link providers’ reimbursements to the value—not the volume—of the services they provide.

Related News and Insights

Read expert perspectives and the latest research from RWJF to explore the opportunities and complexities of this topic.

Research
A mother sits on the floor with her baby, supporting him while he stands.

How Equity Strategies Can Make Healthcare Better for Everyone

When doctors and hospitals seek to reduce racial disparities in health, they often fix persistent problems that affect all patients. This brief outlines evidence and examples that demonstrate how equity strategies lead to better care for everyone.

1-min read

Child and Family Wellbeing Policy and Law
Brief
A doctor speaks with a patient in an examination room.

Preventable Hospitalizations Among Adult Medicaid Enrollees in 2019

Black Medicaid enrollees are significantly more likely to be hospitalized for preventable reasons when compared to their White counterparts.

1-min read

Healthcare Coverage and Access Healthcare Costs & Outcomes
Brief
A man completing a claim form on a clipboard.

Is it Time to Reform Medicaid and Medicare Supplemental Payments?

Changing how Medicare and Medicaid pay healthcare providers for supplemental services could help address inequities in the nation’s health system.

1-min read

Healthcare Coverage and Access
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Featured Initiatives

RWJF funds many initiatives to create opportunities that improve health equity. For this focus area, these initiatives were selected to demonstrate grantmaking that is helping us achieve the greatest impact.  

A doctor speaks with a patient at a health clinic.

Community Solutions for Health Equity

Mobile Medical Unit at the Ina Arbuckle Elementary School. Joanne Brown signs up her 1.5 month old granddaughter (who she had temporary custody of) for state health insurance so that she could be seen at the health unit.

Raising the Bar

A doctor discusses a treatment plan with a patient.

National Center for Complex Health and Social Needs