Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,031)
- Faculty Publications (484)
- September 2017
- Article
Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing to Estimate Cost of Care at Multidisciplinary Aerodigestive Centers
By: Robert S. Kaplan, Jordan A. Garcia, Bipin Mistry, Stephen Hardy, Mary Shannon Fracchia, Cheryl Hersh, Carissa Wentland, Joseph Vadakekalam and Christopher J. Hartnick
Time-driven activity-based costing was used to estimate the cost of care for patients with laryngeal cleft seen between 2008 and 2013 at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary Pediatric Aerodigestive Center. Retrospective chart review was performed to identify clinic... View Details
- May 2017
- Supplement
Boston Children's Hospital Process Map Video
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Mary Witkowski
The 13 minute video simulates a discussion among orthopedic surgeons and cast room technicians about the processes and resources used when applying long leg casts for patients. The video should be used when teaching Boston Children’s Hospital (Abridged) case, #914-407,... View Details
- Other Article
My Favorite Slide: The Entrepreneurial Gap Applied to Health Care
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Robert Simons
Value-based health care increases physicians’ accountability for patient outcomes. Many have resisted, claiming that patient outcomes are influenced by many forces outside their control, such as patient’s compliance with post-acute and rehab care. The difference... View Details
- March 2017
- Article
Variation in the Cost of Care for Primary Total Knee Arthroplasties
By: Derek A. Haas and Robert S. Kaplan
The study examined the cost variation across 29 high-volume U.S. hospitals for delivering a primary total knee arthroplasty without major complicating conditions. Hospital and physician personnel costs were calculated using time-driven activity-based costing.... View Details
- Article
Drivers of the Variation in Prosthetic Implant Purchase Prices for Total Knee and Total Hip Arthroplasties
By: Derek A. Haas, Kevin J Bozic, Anthony M. DiGioia, Zirui Song and Robert S. Kaplan
Previous studies have documented wide variation in health-care spending and prices; however, the causes for the variation in supply purchase prices across providers are not well understood. The purpose of this study was to determine the drivers of variation in... View Details
- Article
Managing Healthcare Costs and Value
By: Robert S. Kaplan, Michael E. Porter and Mark L. Frigo
Rising health care costs are a major global challenge. A number of factors contribute to this trend, including aging populations and medical technology. But an underlying and misunderstood source of health care’s escalating costs has been the inability of health care... View Details
- Article
Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing for Surgical Episodes
By: Peter Najjar, Matt Strickland and Robert S. Kaplan
Health care costs related to surgical care account for 40% of all hospital and physician spending. Payers attempting to contain costs are replacing fee-for-service with value-based payment schemes that can encompass entire episodes of care, including physician services... View Details
- Article
Adding Value by Talking More
By: Robert S. Kaplan, Derek A. Haas and Jonathan Warsh
The prevailing fee-for-service payment model has led health care administrators and physician practices to impose severe constraints on the time physicians spend talking, for which they are reimbursed poorly or not at all. New value-based reimbursement models, however,... View Details
- November 2016 (Revised August 2020)
- Case
Improving Access at VA
By: Ryan W. Buell, Robert S. Huckman and Sam Travers
In 2015, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) ran the largest healthcare system in the United States, with over 1,700 sites of care that served nearly 9 million veterans. One year earlier, a scandal had erupted over a cover-up of the excessive wait times veterans... View Details
- Article
Risk Management—The Revealing Hand
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Anette Mikes
Many believe that the recent emphasis on enterprise risk management function is misguided, especially after the failure of sophisticated quantitative risk models during the global financial crisis. The concern is that top-down risk management will inhibit innovation... View Details
Keywords: Risk Management
- October 2016 (Revised March 2019)
- Case
Carrum Health: Scaling Bundled Payments
By: Robert S. Huckman and Sarah Mehta
Founded in 2014, Carrum Health helped self-insured employers located in three markets (San Diego, California; Seattle, Washington; and San Francisco, California) save money on their employees’ planned surgeries. It did so by contracting directly with top-quality... View Details
Keywords: Health Financing; Health Insurance; Value-based Healthcare Reimbursements; Bundled Payments; Innovation; Scale; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Cost Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Health Industry; California; San Francisco; San Diego; Seattle
- October 2016 (Revised March 2022)
- Background Note
Cost Variance Analysis
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Susanna Gallani
This note was written to provide students with fundamental concepts and methods for the analysis of cost variances. It focuses on the decomposition of cost variances into price, quantity, and mix variance components, an approach that allows students to identify the... View Details
Keywords: Cost Accounting
- September 2016
- Article
Communicating Value in Healthcare Using Radar Charts: A Case Study of Prostate Cancer
By: Nikhil G. Thaker, Tariq N. Ali, Michael E. Porter, Thomas W. Feeley, Robert S. Kaplan and Steven J. Frank
Question: Can we create a value-based tool to visualize the outcomes and cost of various treatments that could facilitate patient-centered decision making?
Summary Answer: We developed a standardized value framework by using radar charts to visualize and... View Details
Summary Answer: We developed a standardized value framework by using radar charts to visualize and... View Details
- July–August 2016
- Article
How to Pay for Health Care
By: Michael E. Porter and Robert S. Kaplan
The United States stands at a crossroads in how to pay for health care. Fee for service, the dominant model in the United States and many other countries, is now widely recognized as perhaps the biggest obstacle to improving health care delivery. A battle is currently... View Details
- Article
Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing in Emergency Medicine
By: Robert S. Kaplan, Brian J. Yun, Anand M. Prabhakar, Jonathan Warsh, John Brennan, Kyle E. Dempsey and Ali S. Raja
Value in emergency medicine is determined by both patient-important outcomes and the costs associated with achieving them. However, measuring true costs is challenging. Without an understanding of costs, emergency department (ED) leaders will be unable to determine... View Details
- June 2016
- Article
When Doctors Go to Business School: Career Choices of Physician-MBAs
By: Damir Ljuboja, Brian W. Powers, Benjamin Robbins, Robert S. Huckman, Krishna Yeshwant and Sachin Jain
There has been substantial growth in the number of physicians pursuing Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees over the past decade, but there is continuing debate over the utility of these programs and the career outcomes of their graduates. The authors... View Details
- April 2016 (Revised May 2016)
- Case
Hôpital Universitaire de Mirebalais, Partners In Health in Haiti
By: Robert S. Kaplan, Bipin Mistry and Karla Bertrand
The case describes the application of Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TDABC) at a new tertiary hospital, operated by Partners in Health in Mirebelais, Haiti. A project team mapped the clinical processes for use in estimating the direct costs of personnel,... View Details
- February 2016 (Revised February 2018)
- Case
Weathering the Storm at NYU Langone Medical Center
By: Robert S. Huckman, Raffaella Sadun and Michael Norris
In the fall of 2012, Hurricane Sandy forced a full evacuation of NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. The institution, which comprised NYU Medical School and several teaching hospitals, had been on an upward trajectory for several years under the leadership of... View Details
- 2016
- Article
Creating an Execution Premium: Human Capital Practices of Successful Organizations
By: David P. Norton, Robert S. Kaplan and Cassandra Frangos
- Article
Health Care Providers Need a Value Management Office
By: Robert S. Kaplan, Catherine H. MacLean, Alexander Dresner, Derek A. Haas and Thomas W. Feeley
Many health care organizations are striving to implement a value agenda that delivers better patient outcomes at lower cost, medical condition by medical condition. To accelerate the dissemination and adoption of the value agenda, across many more medical conditions,... View Details