Our industry reality 

As the health care industry undergoes unprecedented transformation, health care administrators, physicians and other clinical and operational leaders must help shape a sustainable health care system that is capable of providing high quality, accessible and affordable care.

The Vizient Research Institute advances critical thinking and provides strategic thought leadership through rigorous quantitative research investigations with a focus on broad health care economic trends affecting the affordability and sustainability of our health care delivery system.

Our research

Made available exclusively to Vizient Member Network participants are the annual economic research study findings and topical research papers. Monthly blogs and podcast episodes are
publicly available.

Health Care as an Uncommon Good: In Search of a Path Forward

American medicine faces an identity crisis. The unanswered question whether health care is a right (a common good), or a privilege (a private good) is more than philosophical; the answer dictates which economic model makes the most sense. For health care to be broadly accessible, without socioeconomic disparities, and sustainably affordable, it must eventually be recognized as a common good, with all of the economic consequences that accompany such a designation.

Crosswinds podcast

Crosswinds is a series of casual conversations with national health care thought leaders from across the country. Episodes feature the brightest people in health care considering questions that others haven’t thought to ask – always remarkable, never exactly what you’d expect, and having fun along the way.

Listen now

Report

Shining a light on disparities in mental health treatments

This report reveals significant disparities in mental health treatment between Medicaid and commercially insured patients, emphasizing the urgent need for improved access and equitable care.

Read the report to learn more

Closing the Gap – Improving Access to Behavioral Health Care for Vulnerable Populations

The United States is facing an unprecedented mental health crisis. Variation in access to behavioral health care has resulted in health care disparities amongst different populations. Check out VRI’s latest research which highlights the variation in diagnosis and treatment of behavioral health conditions among economically advantaged patients and economically vulnerable patients and suggests strategies to close the disparities gap in behavioral health care.

Read the Report

Reducing Health Disparities: A Common Goal

The Vizient Research Institute's 2022 study imagined a future in which health disparities have become a social flash point. Based on a case study involving a fictional regional health care cooperative (RHCC) sometime in the future, member executives engaged in a year-long role-playing exercise as an RHCC governing board. They were charged with establishing guiding principles for a new financing system to reduce disparities and expand access for underserved populations and their medical needs.

Read the Summary

The Promise of Health Systems: Right Care, Right Place, Right Time

Mergers and acquisitions continue to be the primary growth strategy among health care providers. The value of system formation to providers includes economies of scale and standardization of care processes, both of which eliminate avoidable variation to improve quality and reduce unnecessary spending. In addition to creating provider value, health system formation includes a promise of value to patients often explicitly stated as a promise to deliver the “right care at the right place at the right time.” Read the two VRI reports below to see how well health systems are doing in delivering on the health system value promise.

Read the Health System Value Report

Read the Promise of Health Systems Report

Controlling health care costs in the US: A fresh look at price transparency

One of our recent health care economic research studies set out to test the impact of price transparency on reducing health care spending. Following a national survey of commercially insured consumers, in-depth interviews and focus groups, the study concluded that price transparency in health care will fall considerably short of the impacts hoped for by payers and policy makers.

Discover how the Vizient Research Institute can help you understand health care economic trends