Population health expert to talk Mississippi moon shots, diabetes

Published on Monday, April 9, 2018

By: Karen Bascom

Fred Goldstein, founder and president of Accountable Health, LLC, will present the second annual John D. Bower School of Population Health Distinguished Lecture Friday, April 13 at noon in the School of Health Related Professions Conference Room at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Goldstein’s lecture, “SpaceX, Moon Shots and Diabetes in Mississippi,” is open to all faculty, staff and students.

Dr. Bettina Beech, dean of the School of Population Health, said she invited Goldstein to speak at UMMC because “he has a wealth of experience in hospitals, employee health plans and community health systems, with a passion to improve health and health care through the creation of new pathways to improved outcomes.”

Goldstein has more than 30 years of experience in population health, disease management, HMO and hospital operations. He is an expert in population health, care management, risk management, health information technology and health system design and development.

His talk’s title alludes to the parallels between two challenging initiatives – space exploration and controlling type 2 diabetes in the state with the nation’s highest rate of the disease.

To create measurable progress in controlling and preventing diabetes in Mississippi, there needs to be a change in how hospitals and health care systems manage health, Goldstein said.

“We can’t do it the old way. What we’ve done in the past has helped us get where we are now,” he said.

Part of the “old way” is the fee-for-service model of health care, where providers receive payment based on patient visits and procedures. Instead, shifting to a value-based care system will help take the “waste out of the rocket,” Goldstein said. This system ties payment services to patient outcomes, rewarding providers for quality care, not quantity. This approach could improve health outcomes and decrease health care cost, he said.

“And if we move to a value-based care approach, we can make funds available to work on solving other problems in health care,” he said.

Goldstein’s accomplishments include founding a disease management company that served 11 state Medicaid programs and numerous employer groups, operating an HMO that was ranked the highest quality Medicaid Health Plan in Florida and developing an award-winning mobile health app. He was also responsible for the inclusion of the Medicare annual wellness visit in the Affordable Care Act. He now operates Accountable Health, a Florida-based consulting firm focused on population health.

The lecture marks the second anniversary of the creation of the John D. Bower School of Population Health, the newest school on the UMMC campus and third of its kind in the nation. Its mission is to educate leaders who will transform health care delivery and the health of Mississippians. The school currently offers degree programs in two departments, data science and population health science, and will continue to expand its offerings.

“To have a school of population health in Mississippi is a great thing,” Goldstein said. “You have an opportunity to improve health outcomes.”

Beech met Goldstein through their shared duties on the editorial board of the journal Population Health Management.