Value-Based Care Requires Strategy, Communications and Teamwork
Traditional, fee-for-service insurance-subsidized U.S. healthcare is undergoing a sea change toward value-based care and reimbursement – and, like it or not, there’s no turning back.
This transition will continue regardless of the political landscape, divergent opinions, biases and special interests of various constituencies throughout U.S. business and government agencies. The forces and factors driving unsustainable healthcare costs and declining population health throughout the U.S. are overriding all objections or other resistance.
The question for all categories of providers of reimbursed healthcare services is no longer whether this transition will take place but when, how and how successfully.
Value-Based Care Starts with Goals and Strategy
Achievable, realistic goals and expectations factor heavily in decisions about value-based contracts and how the results and progress of value-based care will be measured, met, assessed and learned from. It’s a progressive, gradual journey of ongoing change and ongoing improvement (hopefully) and it must be approached as such.
How and how fast you get from “here to there” and the steps along that path must be carefully planned and implemented. That requires smart, well-considered strategy, including feedback and buy-in from the entire organization. Even then, it isn’t easy or quick but the chances for success are certainly higher and the risk of failure is mitigated to the extent possible.
Value-Based Care is a Collaborative, Team Sport
Value-based care must consider the entire continuum of care, including each internal and external contributor. This is a more difficult change in philosophy, style and mindset for some than for others, but without an effective team approach, value-based care has no chance to produce better health outcomes, reduced cost, higher patient satisfaction or greater provider satisfaction and fulfillment.
There are many tools already available (including software, medical devices, deep learning AI and other means of measuring, monitoring and assessing patient care, costs and outcomes) with more being developed all the time.
But without a true team commitment, team processes and team behavior that takes into account the human factor and relationships between providers, patients, payers, family and caregivers, all of the most sophisticated, inanimate tools won’t carry the day.
Success in Value-Based Care Requires Great, Constant Communication
Value-based care is based on ongoing, effective communications between all of the players in the healthcare and patient journey continuum.
Many of the SaaS-based software solutions that support value-based care are chock-full of communications tools, but those tools require training, attention, utilization, response and constant feedback from and between the healthcare providers as well as between providers, payers, patients, family members and other caregivers.
At the end of the day, healthcare is still a human business that requires human interaction and communication. The tools are available to help facilitate the communications process, not to replace it.
How Forefront Helps Healthcare Organizations Navigate Value-Based Care
Forefront Healthcare Consulting helps healthcare organizations (hospitals, health systems, physician-led and hospital-led ACOs and medical groups) through the journey and process of succeeding in the Quadruple Aim within a value-based care model.
We provide strategy, guidance, communications and teamwork training, vendor selection and many other aspects of the human factors that impact the success of every major transition within a healthcare organization – very much including the journey through and to an effective value-based care model and method of healthcare delivery.
Call us at 800-924-5447 to discuss where you are in your journey, where you feel stuck or confused and how best to keep doing, learning and succeeding with our help.