Is the concept of value-based care (VBC) still relevant in today’s healthcare landscape or just a buzzword? Some argue that the financial challenges brought about by the pandemic have steered our healthcare delivery systems away from prioritizing value. However, many experts remain optimistic that value-based care is the key to achieving our overarching objectives of a more equitable, sustainable, high-quality healthcare system.
Kelsey Stevens, a principal at Wakely, an HMA Company, led a session on value-based care at the HMA Fall Conference. Her panelists felt strongly that value is critical to a functional and patient-focused healthcare system because the alternative is out of control spending and poor health outcomes. In fact, value-based care is flourishing in new ways as we look to integrate behavioral health and address health related social needs. There are lessons to be learned from early experiments, new models being built, and new models to be designed. Both public and private payers are pursuing new ways to take financial risk to deliver improved healthcare outcomes, focusing on solutions for higher risk populations or circumstances where quality of outcomes are indefensibly poor (i.e., maternal outcomes).
This enthusiasm felt by the wide variety of executives present at that fall meeting has inspired HMA to focus an entire conference on value. But not just another conference on value. Our internal experts felt strongly about hosting a forum for healthcare organizations to truly tackle the end-to-end challenges of VBC… so we are doing that.
Those who join us March 5-6 in Chicago will experience a workshop designed to “get real” about transforming healthcare quality and value. We are convening participants from all parts of the healthcare industry who have the collective experience to pinpoint common challenges and to build a path forward.
The workshop is organized into four cohorts:
- Payment and Risk Management Models,
- Policy and Strategy Frameworks,
- Data and Technology, and
- Care Delivery Frameworks
Each will produce concrete recommendations for action, as well as building new relationships among peers to sustain this change. In the cohort on Payment and Risk management, discussion will be focused on existing and new models for payment, pricing and attribution methodologies, risk mitigation levers along the value continuum, and approaches to engage employees in focusing on patient-centered value in the care they provide.
One of our fall panelists, Eric Mattelson, chief actuary at Zing Health, said “I’m still convinced that value-based care is the future of healthcare and the Sisyphean struggle to get there will ultimately be worthwhile.” We echo this sentiment wholeheartedly, and if you share this conviction, we encourage you to secure your spot today and become a part of this exciting and transformative event.
Our sessions and networking events offer an opportunity to delve into approaches to develop and manage risk-based contracting across sectors, establish effective partnerships with safety net providers and community-based organizations, apply a value lens to deployment of technology and data analytics, and develop health equity plans aligned with value principles and policies.
Future blogs in this series will touch on elements from the other 3 cohorts on VBC that make up the balance of the workshop. To learn more and register go to HMA’s 2024 Spring Workshop page.