Continuum of Care

Continuum of Care
Tallahassee Magazine, by Steve Bornhoft; 12/31/23
Leaders seek seamless approach to services. In the United States, health services are delivered based on what Mark O’Bryant sees as a “reverse model.” Some might even call it a perverse model. 

“You get paid for treating people when they are sick,” said O’Bryant, the president and CEO at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Inc., the parent corporation of Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. “And, you get paid more when they’re sicker. You make your biggest dollars when you have your sickest patients. There is very little incentive to keep people well because you don’t get paid for it.” 

That is to say, too, O’Bryant stressed, that the model is episodic in nature. A person develops a health issue and engages a health care provider who treats the patient and charges fees for services.