On Jan. 1, 2014, hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans will become eligible for federally subsidized health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Vanderbilt University Medical Center is launching a campaign to increase patient awareness about the ACA and help patients enroll in subsidized insurance plans.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center staff and faculty are preparing for a new health care landscape, one shaped by a lowered payment regime, greater outside scrutiny of health care quality, new rewards and penalties for hospital and provider safety and quality, and the transfer of financial risk for health outcomes from payers to newly affiliated hospitals and providers.

As never before, large employers and regional health care providers have opportunity — and incentive — to work together to tame unsustainable health benefit cost inflation while improving health and health care outcomes.

The Transition Management Office at Vanderbilt University Medical Center holds to the principle that every patient should know what will happen next in his or her care, when it will happen, who will be involved and what the costs will be.

Fisk University and Vanderbilt University have begun planning for a novel academic bridge program comprising a three-year accelerated Fisk undergraduate degree, weighted toward courses in natural science, mathematics or computer science, followed by a computer science master’s degree from Fisk, bridging to a Biomedical Informatics Ph.D. from Vanderbilt.

Daily multidisciplinary patient transition huddles are now in effect for all but four units of Vanderbilt University Hospital.