In a recent podcast, Physician’s Weekly (PW) spoke with Kim Yu, MD, FAAFP, about how clinicians can minimize the burden on their practices during the transition to valuebased care.
PW: What is value-based care?
Dr. Yu: Value-based care is the concept that physicians should be reimbursed based on patient outcomes instead of the volume of services provided.
It’s important for patients to have the right care at the right time in the right place. Value-based care meets the objectives of the quintuple aim: improved health outcomes, decreased costs, better patient and clinician experiences, and addressing and improving health equity. The goal is to help patients maintain the highest possible level of wellness rather than waiting to provide care when patients get sick.
How can clinicians implement value-based care more easily?
CMS wants most Medicare fee-for-service plans to transition to a value-based care relationship by 2030. To make the transition less burdensome, you must prioritize workforce, data, and resources. Educate your team about why you are making the shift. It is also critical to have data from the point of care. Then, you can build resources (eg, population health tools, a certified EHR, or community health workers) to trans – form the way you practice.
Who will be impacted the most by this transition?
I anticipate that we’re going to see improved, increased adoption of value-based care and alternative payment models in every payer space. Population health ideals, such as better health and lower costs, will become pivotal.
However, there are risks. We shouldn’t be determining which patients to care for to make our numbers look great and keep costs lower. It’s important to have policies and procedures in place to protect marginalized patients. Think about it as patient-centered care, not value-based care.
I also see a threat to independent practices. Large systems are buying or making partnerships with value-based care organizations and then purchasing independent practices. Patients are funneled into other clinics and told the practice is closing down, and a practice where a physician may have worked 10, 20, 30 years is suddenly gone in a community. On one hand, this relieves the practice’s burden of having to pay bills. On the other hand, it decreases control over the patient-physician relationship.
When you’ve built a practice over many years, that trust you have with a patient is paramount. It’s vital that we protect smaller, independent practices.
