Health care in the United States continues to evolve as technology makes modern medicine safer and better for patients.

But there’s a paradigm shift coming that likely will change the health care landscape – the insurance industry wants tangible evidence your physician is helping you.

“Patient outcomes are at the core of this,” said Heritage Health’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Peter Purrington. “Health centers must be able to prove that their care results in better outcomes.”

That means your doctor will be tracking your progress and overall wellness like never before.

“The focus has always been on the patient,” said Purrington. “However, insurance companies are evaluating whether the provider is effective. If they’re not, the provider could face challenges getting paid.”

To help meet these new challenges, Dr. Purrington recently completed board-certification in Health Care Quality and Management (HCQM) through the American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Physicians and the American Board of Medical Examiners.

“In the recent past, physicians would be paid on a fee-for-service basis for care they provided, regardless of the outcome to the patient’s health,” said Purrington. “Going forward, physicians and providers will be measured against national standards in quality of the care provided to patients.”

“Take a patient with uncontrolled diabetes for example, the measure used to determine good control is hemoglobin A1C,” said Purrington. “Now, our practice and our providers are reporting and being monitored on the number of patients in our practice who have a low hemoglobin A1C.”

“We will be working more closely with our patients to understand the importance of following a plan for their chronic conditions. Every patient is different, so the solutions will be different too. The important thing is getting the diabetes under control, helping them lower their A1C.”

Patient engagement is critical to improving the health of individuals and populations. To help improve engagement, health care providers will be surveying patients after visits to ensure they’re satisfied as well.

“We’re going to listen and learn from those answers,” he said.

The changes to health care are happening now.

“We’re still in a period of transition of change to this new model,” said Purrington. “Patients should be encouraged to ask their provider about important aspects of their health that can lead to better outcomes.”