A male paramedic performs a procedure on a man.
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.

The pediatric emergency department at the Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, NJ.

Healthcare Quality and Value Library

A library of research and perspectives on healthcare quality and value.

1-min read

Healthcare Quality and Value
Brief
Lamont Taylor (red Phillies jacket) and his mother, Gloria Taylor (gold pantsuit) ÑLamont is a long term patient of Dr. WallerÕs.,Lamont Taylor (red Phillies jacket) and his mother, Gloria Taylor (gold pantsuit) —Lamont is a long term patient of Dr. Waller’s. AF4Q Grand Rapids

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
Grantee Story
A doctor with a face mask talking to a girl patient and her mother at a clinic.

Aligning Forces for Quality

Aligning Forces for Quality is RWJF’s signature effort to lift the quality of healthcare in targeted communities, reduce racial and ethnic disparities, and provide models for national reform. This program received RWJF support between 2005 and 2017.

1-min read

Health Disparities
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Featured Initiatives

RWJF funds many initiatives in support of our vision for a Culture of Health. For this focus area, these initiatives were selected to demonstrate grantmaking that is helping us achieve the greatest impact.  

Dr. Charles Moore talks with patient Walter Johnson, who he will examine later in the evening, in the lobby of the HEALing Community Center, which serves the population of Southwest Atlanta, Ga. and beyond. HEALing Community Center Atlanta

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