Learn more about value-based care

Value-based care—it’s what many in the healthcare industry are striving for, and understandably so, since it’ll help so many people lead happier and healthier lives.

Knowing about an idea can inspire conversation. Really understanding an idea, on the other hand, can inspire action. Learning what value-based care is, how it works, where it can manifest, and the biggest hurdles it faces in achieving its desired outcome is so important: The more patients, employers, and providers can speak to this alternative approach to medicine, the more likely it will come to fruition and last for the long-term.

And perhaps what better way to familiarize yourself with this model than by reading (or listening to!) books? Below, we’ve compiled some of the most popular and reputable titles out there on value-based care. Some tackle the topic head-on, while others touch on it as it relates to factors such as costs, equity, and big business that are common concerns right now in the U.S. healthcare system.

15 healthcare books to read

1. The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care—and How to Fix It by Marty Makary

Written by Dr. Marty Makary, a public health researcher and the chief of Islet Transplant Surgery at Johns Hopkins University, The Price We Pay covers where the money goes in healthcare and the many ways this spend doesn’t actually pertain to diagnoses and treatment. With both anecdotes and research, Makary hopes to provide insights that can help individuals receive the best and most cost-effective care and encourage field insiders to consider alternative or innovative solutions for cutting costs and boosting patient trust.

2. An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back by Elisabeth Rosenthal

Author Elisabeth Rosenthal is a former reporter and a doctor, having worked at the New York Times for two decades after serving as an emergency room physician. Her book, An American Sickness, takes a holistic approach to tackling the healthcare crisis by focusing on each industry involved, from hospitals to insurance companies and drug manufacturers.

In turn, she explains how care went from being about the patient to being about profit, and what each of us can do to demand and initiate reform.

3. Priced Out: The Economic and Ethical Costs of American Health Care by Uwe Reinhardt

Priced Out is by Uwe Reinhardt, a political and healthcare economist and former professor at Princeton University, and discusses the history of American healthcare, why it’s become more expensive over time, and where it lacks when compared to other countries’ systems. But it’s not just about laying out the facts. Reinhardt also suggests solutions, as well as debunks myths that could be holding experts and patients back from optimal care.

4. The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care by T. R. Reid

In The Healing of America, New York Times bestselling author and healthcare reporter T. R. Reid shares how other industrialized democracies, such as Japan and Germany, are creating universal and affordable healthcare systems—so that the U.S. might learn how to adopt a similar system, too. This could be relevant to policy movers and shakers, as well as those who want to better contextualize their personal health scenarios.

5. Why Not Better and Cheaper?: Healthcare and Innovation by James B. Rebitzer and Robert S. Rebitzer

Why Not Better and Cheaper? is written by a national health advisor and a professor of healthcare finance and economics, giving it a balanced look at how healthcare can be revolutionized so that treatments aren’t just cheaper—they’re better for everyone as well.

6. The Quality Cure: How Focusing on Health Care Quality Can Save Your Life and Lower Spending Too by David Cutler

The author of The Quality Cure, David Cutler, was a senior healthcare advisor to President Barack Obama and is now a professor of applied economics at Harvard University. In his book, Cutler breaks down each of the problems he sees in American healthcare and how technology and value-focused organizations could be just what the system needs to set itself straight.

7. Sickening: How Big Pharma Broke American Health Care and How We Can Repair It by John Abramson

In this exposè on major pharmaceutical companies, physician John Abramson shares stories from his experience and his patients to showcase how standards have been lowered in the U.S. healthcare industry in pursuit of profit. But it’s not all doom and gloom—Abramson also empowers patients with tools and insights to demand better from prescribers.

8. Big Med: Megaproviders and the High Cost of Health Care in America by David Dranove and Lawton Robert Burns

In Big Med, authors David Dranove and Lawton Robert Burns, both professors of healthcare management at MBA programs at the Kellogg School of Management and the Wharton School, respectively, argue that “mega providers” are what hold U.S. healthcare back from reform. They talk about how these institutions have taken up most of the market share and where we can begin injecting change to generate more efficiency and improved results.

9. The American Health Care Paradox: Why Spending More is Getting Us Less by Elizabeth H. Bradley and Lauren A. Taylor

The American Health Care Paradox combines the expertise of a professor of science and a public health researcher to shed light on why America struggles to achieve ideal health outcomes even as it has one of the biggest government budgets and economies to do so. It touches on possible ways forward, and what could be learned from other systems around the globe.

10. Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-Based Competition on Results by Michael E. Porter and Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg

In Redefining Health Care, an innovation expert and a strategist offer their perspective on promoting value-based care in the U.S. with a new framework based on fair competition and geared toward providers and employers.

11. Understanding Value Based Healthcare by Christopher Moriates and Vineet Arora

Directly from the people on the ground, Understanding Value Based Healthcare is a great primer for defining value-based care for yourself or others. It explains where waste tends to occur in the U.S. healthcare system and how this can be mitigated, weaving in case studies along the way to empower both patients and providers.

12. The Present Illness: American Health Care and Its Afflictions by Martin F. Shapiro

By a health services researcher and professor of medicine, The Present Illness embraces sociological, historical, and scientific concepts, anecdotal evidence from the author, and a bit of humor to dissect the problem of American healthcare and provides a unique route forward to consider.

13. On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the Industry by John Toussaint and Roger A. Gerar

On the Mend is written by a PhD and an MD who have both also worked in the corporate healthcare sector and argue for “lean healthcare.” The book outlines what this looks like and offers real-world examples of it in practice based on the authors’ experiences.

14. Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis by John Goodman

Priceless author John Goodman is a long-time healthcare economist, and his bold take on creating low-cost, high-quality healthcare in the U.S. from 2012 is still very relevant today—and comes in a recently released second edition.

15. High Reliability Healthcare: Applying the Secrets of the Nuclear Navy to Save Patient Lives by Jeffrey Kuhlman

High Reliability Healthcare envisions what could happen if healthcare adopted the same characteristics of another, perhaps more consistent and safe, industry: the nuclear navy.

Retired navy physician Jeffrey Kuhlman describes the organizational and leadership skills that helped his former field thrive—and how they might best apply to medicine.

Bonus Book: The Social Transformation of American Medicine: The Rise of a Sovereign Profession and the Making of a Vast Industry by Paul Starr

We can’t learn from our mistakes—and accomplishments—unless we know where we started. The Social Transformation of American Medicine, by a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University, takes readers through the United States healthcare system as it began two-and-a-half decades ago, touching on the ways hospitals, doctors, and government and private programs have evolved and become more “corporate” in their approach.

With accessible reading such as these options, anyone can become an expert in value-based care—and we might all just benefit if they do.

Learn how Carrum Health can help employers shift toward value-based care.