Practices are increasingly focusing on value-based care as healthcare trends away from the fee-for-service model, according to Forbes.
Here are six trends in value-based care.
1. Trust your instincts. Often, providers can treat patients with a home visit or prescription medicine, rather than a costly hospitalization. Use your best judgment to determine the most appropriate treatment course.
2. Embrace prepayments. Some payment systems, such as bundled payments, give providers prepayment for a set of clinical services. Many may view prepayments as financially risky, yet these prepayments offer clinicians the freedom to fund treatments necessary to manage a patient's medical condition.
3. Emerging roles support care delivery. Organizations operating in value-based payment systems often factor in the cost of delivering healthcare, and will devise new roles that are more successful in supporting patients. Often, community health workers or nurse practitioners can address the patient's needs, and providers can use their time to manage the more complicated cases.
4. Going beyond the expected. Many providers utilize a "whatever it takes approach" to deliver superior outcomes for patients. In a value-based healthcare system, providers go one step further, such as organizing transportation for patients.
5. Patient-centered approach. In a value-based healthcare system, patients can define what matters to them and work with providers to meet their needs.
6. Emphasis on the long-term. Value-based care often centers on long-term patient outcomes as well as preventing chronic disease.
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