5 Best Practices In Value-Based Healthcare

Value-based healthcare is a care delivery model where providers are paid based on the quality of services they offer and the health results of their patients. It differs from a fee-for-service approach, where healthcare providers get paid depending on the number of services they offer.

This care mode benefits everyone, including patients, payers, and providers. It allows patients to spend less money to obtain better health. For example, managing chronic illnesses like diabetes and cancer can be expensive and tedious for patients. Fortunately, the value-based care approach focuses on assisting patients in healing from diseases and injuries more quickly. For this reason, patients have fewer doctor visits and medical tests, thus spending less on treatment.

On the other hand, as a provider, you become more effective and achieve enhanced patient satisfaction. Finally, payers can control costs and lower risks by spreading them through a larger patient population. Because of all these benefits, this approach is becoming more popular worldwide. The US value-based healthcare service market size is predicted to reach USD$6.16 trillion by 2030. Continue reading to discover the five best practices in value-based healthcare.

1. Partner with other healthcare providers

In value-based care, you may need to partner with other healthcare providers like urgent care centers, neighboring clinics, and other healthcare organizations that can enable you to offer better services to your patients and improve their overall health. The people you partner with and the care your patients can receive from them directly impacts your bottom line.

For instance, if your patients need molecular lab testing, care from specialists, or have critical conditions and require hospital care, you must be proactive in organizing their care. Partnering with other providers can help you avoid expensive overlaps in care and other issues.

2. Determine your patient population

Patient population refers to the particular group of patients suffering from an indication. Apart from allowing you to offer effective value-based care, identifying your patient population enables you to ensure patient safety and care coordination and boost your finances by:

• Reducing diagnosis and medication mistakes
• Boosting medical data accuracy
• Lowering the number of duplicate data records
• Ensuring efficient medical care
• Minimizing health insurance fraud and medical identity burglary
• Preventing medication administration mistakes

Additionally, you can determine the patients with a high risk of hospitalization that can generate high medical care costs and constantly get divided care. Doing so lets you inform your patients about interventions that can be advantageous. For instance, accurate and timely identification of high-risk patients before surgery allows you to inform patients of expected risks and refer them to specialists before surgery.

You can carry out health risk evaluation online through a patient web portal or during annual health visits. With the information you obtain, you can identify those at a high risk of developing health conditions.  

3. Minimize nonessential spending

The main goal of value-based healthcare is to provide quality services at reduced prices. Health spending has been rising among most countries globally. However, the US is known to have the highest private and public per capita health expenses among all countries worldwide. As of 2020, annual healthcare costs per capita in the US were over USD$12,000. So, you’ll want to find ways of reducing unnecessary expenses and directing utilization to the best and more affordable methodologies.

4. Eliminate gaps in the care

Fee-for-service approaches concentrate on single moments of care, while the value-based model supports a more holistic clinical method with a broader focus on overall patient results. For patients with frequent checkups, you can smoothly tackle gaps in care and discuss overall health concerns.

However, sometimes, patients can only seek medical services when their conditions worsen. 6 in 10 adults in the US have a chronic disease, while 4 in 10 have two or more. These chronic care visits can be important opportunities for determining gaps in healthcare. When you check patients, identify any overdue preventive care alternatives or screenings you can program.

5. Measure and monitor results and costs

Measuring and monitoring outcomes enables you to determine your impact on your patients. Moreover, it provides the data required to boost care and efficiency. You need to consistently track the results that matter most to you and your patients. To achieve better outcomes, revise your strategy quarterly or monthly and modify your value-based care models as required.

Aside from that, you have to measure the cost of delivering care to every patient. The data you obtain and the health outcomes allow condition-based bundled payment approaches. As a result, you can practice clinical judgment and regain professional autonomy. Plus, the data you collect offers helpful information to demonstrate the value of your care and determine areas for improving your efficiency to build a successful healthcare practice.   

Conclusion

Healthcare services can sometimes be very costly, especially for chronic conditions. Thankfully, value-based care models allow patients to acquire better services at affordable prices. And since you get paid based on the quality of services and improve your patient's health, you can provide high-quality services and boost patient satisfaction. However, you need practices that can drive you to achieve this. Above are some of the practices that can boost your efficiency.