In the world of health care wonkery, "Geisinger" has become a sort of shorthand for innovative, coordinated, high quality care. The Pennsylvania system has gotten attention from policymakers and policythinkers (and bloggers! See our interview with CEO Glenn Steele Jr.)  But today, the Pennsylvania health care system gets introduced to the larger world, via a front-page story in the Washington Post by our good friend Ceci Connolly. She writes:

You could think of them as the Maytag repairmen of health care.

In an industry that makes its money by selling more—more tests, more surgeries, more drugs—Geisinger Health System officials gambled three years ago that they could succeed by doing less, but doing it better.

Ceci reports on the ProvenCare model, a set of best practices that physicians must follow. Before anyone starts complaining about "cookbook medicine"... 1) yes, physicians can skip or alter a step when there's a really good reason and 2) it works. Complications are down. Readmissions are down. Mortality is down. And costs are down. For specified procedures, Geisinger offers a flat fee. If there are complications, Geisinger bears the additional costs. The model began with elective heart surgery, and then expanded to hip replacements, cataract operations and cath lab procedures. Next, is prenatal care and treatment of lower back pain (an area on which there is a lot of disagreement among doctors about the best approach.)

Geisinger, as we have noted in the past, is unusual because it's both an integrated health care system and a health care plan, and it has what Steele calls a "sweet spot" where they intersect. Not everything that Geisinger does is applicable to every other health care system, at least not under the current payment system. But Geisinger's lessons, about consistency of care, and commitment to ongoing reviews of quality and evidence, are in fact broadly applicable. And it is also a model for changes in the payment system. In fact, much of what Geisinger practices is very similar to what Washington health reformers (including President Obama's budget) preaches. Right now, under our system, some hospitals would lose money if they did a better job of healing people. That's pretty ridiculous. So let's fix it.