Value-Based Care

What is value-based care?

Value-based care is simply the idea of improving quality and outcomes for patients. Reaching this goal is based on a set of changes in the ways a patient receives care. We’re looking to make healthcare proactive instead of reactive, preventing problems before they start. Overall wellness, quality of care, and preventive screenings all are key to bringing about better healthcare outcomes.

What changes for patients with value-based care?

The goal of value-based care is to standardize healthcare processes through best practices, as in any business. Mining of data and evidence can determine which processes work and which don’t. This forms a foundational “care pathway” to help get best results for patients.

Wellness and prevention are also stressed in value-based care. Prevention of health (through quitting smoking, dietary and lifestyle changes, exercise, etc.) reduces the need for expensive tests, procedures, and medications.

Your staying well cuts healthcare costs for everyone. For example, if you have a chronic condition such as diabetes, value-based care can help you avoid complications of the disease. Instead of going to several institutes to get care, you work with one integrated team that already knows you and your health background. This team, which may consist of your primary doctor, supporting healthcare professionals and nutritionists, would help you:

• Keep your blood sugar under control.
• Stay on a healthy diet.
• Set up a realistic exercise program.
• Deal with the emotional and psychological aspects of the disease.

How does value-based care reduce costs?

With the concept of value-based care, doctors and hospitals get paid based on outcomes, not on numbers of procedures done, patients seen, or how much they are charged. Rather than charging a patient for each individual test or service, payments are bundled – especially useful in more complex cases like joint replacements.

Electronic medical records for each patient eliminate repetitive and unnecessary tests and procedures. Teams of doctors and healthcare professionals communicate with one another through the help of care coordinators to treat patients with more efficiency and less wasted time and effort. Patients move through this integrated system more quickly.

The ideal result is fewer readmissions and less frequent hospitalizations and trips to the emergency room. Value-based care is a long-term goal. It’s a proactive concept to keep healthcare costs down, produce better healthcare outcomes and most importantly, improve your overall health and well being.