Elliott Fisher Recognized by HFMA for Contributions to Health Care

The Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) presented its highest individual achievement award to Elliott Fisher, MD, MPH, director of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, at the association’s annual conference in Orlando, Fla.

The Richard L. Clarke Board of Directors Award was presented to Fisher in recognition of his leadership in advancing the science of health care delivery and in developing new models of health care delivery and payment. HFMA is a membership organization for health care finance leaders that works improve the nation’s healthcare delivery system by sharing knowledge and best practices. Established in 1964, the Richard L. Clarke Board of Directors Award honors individuals who make significant, positive contributions to the profession of health care finance or the financing of health care services.

Elliott Fisher, MD, MPH
Elliott Fisher, MD, MPH

“Dr. Fisher’s groundbreaking work on the concept of accountable care organizations paved the way for the subsequent development of ACOs,” said HFMA president and CEO Joseph J. Fifer, FHFMA, CPA. “He continues to be a top thought leader in this key area.”

In addition to his role as director at TDI, Dr. Fisher is also the John E. Wennberg Distinguished Professor of Health Policy, Medicine and Community and Family Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, and Co-Director of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care.

“Receiving this award is indeed an honor and I see it as another sign of the impact that Dartmouth is having on health care in the U.S., thanks largely to the inspiration of Jack Wennberg and the power of collaboration across disciplines,” said Fisher. “We have a lot more work to do to make sure our ideas actually make health care better and more affordable for all.”

The HFMA noted Fisher for three major contributions. First, he led seminal research on the promise and perils of using large databases for health care research, work that helped to validate the quality of the data and demonstrated how such data could be used to answer important epidemiologic and policy questions. He then built on this work to explore the causes and consequences of the dramatic differences in spending observed across U.S. regions and academic medical centers. He then demonstrated that the 60 percent higher intensity of care in high cost U.S. regions and health systems did not result in better health outcomes and was largely due to differences in the use of discretionary and potentially avoidable care. This work was the first to reveal the magnitude of waste in U.S. health care and helped to provide the rationale for the transition to value-based payment that is now underway.

Finally, he led the team that did the empirical research that provided the theoretical rationale for Accountable Care Organizations and worked with colleagues to adapt the concept in ways that helped lead to its inclusion in the Affordable Care Act and adoption by many private payers. His current research focuses on exploring the determinants of successful ACO formation and performance.

Fisher has published over 150 research articles and commentaries. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University and completed his internal medicine residency and public health training at the University of Washington. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice was founded in 1988 by Dr. John E. Wennberg as the Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences (CECS). Among its 25 years of accomplishments, it has established a new discipline and educational focus in the Evaluative Clinical Sciences, introduced and advanced the concept of shared decision-making for patients, demonstrated unwarranted variation in the practice and outcomes of medical treatment, developed the first comprehensive examination of US health care variations (The Dartmouth Atlas), and has shown that more health care is not necessarily better care.