Value-Based Care: What Is It?
Value-based care is a healthcare delivery approach in which providers are compensated depending on the patient's health outcomes. In healthcare, the ‘value’ is determined by measuring the patient's health outcomes versus the cost of providing them.
The concept of value-based health care is different from other healthcare delivery models, such as fee-for-service and capitation, where the provider is paid for enhancing the patient's health in an evidence-based manner. It is a powerful tool to combat physician burnout by connecting them to their purpose as doctors and supporting their professionalism.
Value-based health care helps to restrict the progression of a health condition and decrease compounding complexity, ultimately enhancing the patient's health outcomes. The proper implementation of this healthcare delivery model reduces costs for patients and the need for ongoing therapy or care.
Significance of Value-based Health Care
There's a dysfunction in most healthcare systems across the globe despite their having immense medical knowledge. Many studies demonstrate a huge variation in health outcomes and costs, with costs increasing at an unsustainable rate, outpacing GDP in many countries. Most countries spend around 10% of their GDP on the healthcare sector alone, which puts considerable pressure on health systems.
The lack of a proper healthcare delivery model has made costs a major concern to both patients and the government. Therefore, this is a universal problem that needs to be addressed so that everyone benefits — the patients, physicians and society as a whole. We all need a healthcare system where stakeholders and patients are aligned to the goals of delivering outcomes that matter to patients at the lowest cost.
In this regard, the value-based health care system is a truly patient-centric healthcare system that starts with measuring health outcomes. It combines informatics with key enablers and a supportive public policy environment. This results in the creation of an evolving healthcare system where outcomes transparency allows us to learn from systems around the world, identify best practices and eliminate wasteful spending that does not drive value.
The major goals that a value-based health care system aims to fulfil are:
- Implementation of a continuum of care that provides patients with the best treatment choices.
- Measure health outcomes against the cost and standardise them to enhance patient satisfaction.
- Enhance the patient experience by providing cost-effective treatment and increasing reimbursement costs.
- Improve the overall service quality, thereby ensuring optimum utilisation of resources.
Elements of Value-based Health Care
Implementing value-based health care requires strategic financial planning since it involves a collaborative chain of actios such as population study, therapy planning, design of coordinated care, and outcome measurement. Resource availability, public financing, and proper utilisation of technology are some of the critical elements to a successful implementation of a value-based healthcare delivery model.
According to Professor Michael E. Porter, the Harvard professor who coined the term value-based health care, this system has six elements:
- Organised care delivery to patients and populations
- Measurement of the health outcomes of every patient with respect to the costs.
- Alignment of reimbursement with the efficiency of care provided and health outcomes achieved.
- Integration of health systems to ensure the patient is provided with the correct setting, provider, and treatment.
- Geographical expansion to broaden access to better patient treatment options, thereby allowing governments to reduce geographical gaps in healthcare services.
- A new generation of information technology (IT). Interoperable IT systems significantly aid in accelerating the implementation of value-based health care models.
Benefits of Value-based Health Care
Value-based health care aims to transform the existing healthcare system by providing populations and patients with care that produces health benefits that matter to the patient in terms of quality, cost and experience of care. In this healthcare delivery model, the key focus is to deliver patient-centred, safe and appropriate levels of care that produce effective and satisfying health outcomes.
The potential benefits of value-based health care are as follows:
- Value-based health care often leads to better health outcomes and lower costs to patients. This helps in managing long-term health conditions like diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, cancer, etc. In a value-based health care approach, the primary focus is to help patients recover faster so they face fewer readmissions, hospital visits and medical procedures. Ultimately, it will enable patients to lead a better quality of life.
- Value-based health care allows the service provider to focus more on the quality of the care rather than the quantity. The higher the focus on value and quality of care is, the greater will be the patient’s engagement and satisfaction with the providers. Additionally, this model is more profitable to providers because it does not pose any financial risk as seen in other models like capitation and fee-for-service.
- Value-based health care helps manage chronic diseases effectively, reducing medical emergencies and costly hospitalisations. The cost to GDP decreases as a result of the assistance that this model provides to governments in lowering the overall costs of healthcare.
Lusio Rehab: Helping Improve Health Outcomes Through Technology
At Lusio Rehab, we are dedicated to assisting individuals with their physical therapy, fitness and rehabilitation. We offer innovative solutions that aid in achieving the goal of value-based healthcare for both clinicians and patients. LusioMATE, a physical therapy ecosystem app with wearable sensors, works on a simple and powerful technology. It motivates individuals to achieve their physical therapy and movement goals, as well as provides a customised dashboard for clinicians to monitor and prescribe their clients’ physical therapy programs.
LusioMATE is today being used by clients in allied health centres, physiotherapy and occupational therapy clinics and hospitals, insurance companies and it is a registered product under the NDIS in Australia. It’s a key part of the drive to improve value based care in the health system in Australia, and increasingly around the world.
For more details about this app, contact us today.
