Pursuing the Triple Aim: Seven Innovators Show the Way to Better Care, Better Health, and Lower Costs

Even with major steps forward – including the AffordableCare Act and the creation of the Center for Medicare and MedicaidInnovation -- the national health care debate is too often poisonedby negativity. A quieter, more thoughtful, and vastly moreconstructive conversation continues among health care leaders andprofessionals throughout the country.  Innovative solutionsare being designed and implemented at the local level, andcountless health care organizations are demonstrating breakthroughremedies to some of the toughest and most expensive challenges inhealth care.

Pursuing the Triple Aim shares compelling stories thatare emerging in locations ranging from Pittsburgh to Seattle, fromBoston to Oakland, focused on topics including improvingquality and lowering costs in primary care; setting challenginggoals to control chronic disease with notable outcomes; leveragingemployer buying power to improve quality, reduce waste, and drivedown cost; paying for care under an innovative contract thatcompensates for quality rather than quantity; and much more. Theauthors describe these innovations in detail, and show the waytoward a health care system for the nation that improves theexperience and quality of care while at the same time controllingcosts.

As the Triple Aim moves from being largely an aspirationalframework to something that communities all across the US canimplement and learn from, its potential to become a touchstone forthe work ahead has never been greater. Pursuing the TripleAim lays out the vision, the interventions, and promisingexamples of success.