Trends in Value-Based Care

The U.S. healthcare industry continues to inch toward value-based care (VBC) and away from a fee-for-service system. Over the past eight years, the number of U.S. states and territories that implement VBC programs has spiked––rising from three states in 2011 to 48 as of 2018.

To stay abreast of this movement, in August, Definitive Healthcare, a provider of data and intelligence on hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare providers, polled 1,090 healthcare leaders across the provider, biotech, financial services, staffing, life sciences, IT, and consulting industries to determine predictions for the future of VBC. With 791 total responses, these healthcare leaders helped identify:

1. The biggest barriers to implementing VBC;

2. Factors accelerating the adoption of VBC;

3. Benefits of VBC; and

4. How VBC will shift in 2020

Related: Three Reasons Why Value-Based Care Works

Here are the results:

Factors accelerating the adoption of VBC

• Appropriate provider compensation and incentives (44.8%)
• Consolidating market moving more providers into the VBC model (18.9%)
• Policy requirements (16.1%)
• Increase in risk-sharing models like ACOs (11.9%)
• Other (8.3%)

Biggest benefits of value-based purchasing in healthcare

• Fewer medical errors (48%)
• Reduced costs (28.4%)
• Increased patient satisfaction (17.6%)
• Other (6%)

How VBC programs will shift in 2020

• ACOs and bundled payment models will continue to evolve (31.1%)
• Shift away from voluntary programs in favor of mandatory participation (stricter limits on fee-for-service models) (27.6%)
• Increased provider focus on benchmarking their success against that of their competitors (21.3%)
• Market consolidation: new partnerships and networks will capture market share (18%)
• Other (2%)

“As VBC models continue to evolve, not only are we seeing a new level of care but also a pressure to drive down costs and an increased focus on preventative care management,” says Jason Krantz, CEO of Definitive Healthcare. “As of 2019, only 56% of U.S. hospitals are participating in value-based purchasing models. As VBC programs become more widespread, providers will need to benchmark their performance in order to remain competitive. This survey shows that having the right resources––staffing, compensation, IT, and software––will be key to the success of VBC programs.”