Value-based care makes sense. In short, it is an approach to healthcare that puts emphasis on quality rather than quantity, in terms of the care provided.
A value-based care model can be beneficial to both healthcare providers and patients.
In the following insightful article, we’re going to take a look at what value-based care means for healthcare providers.
What is a fee-for-service model?
Traditional fee-for-service models have been the standard model for many healthcare providers for a long time.
With a fee-for-service model, doctors have incentives to order more tests and encourage more patients to undergo procedures that might not actually hugely benefit their health because a financial incentive is involved.
When fee-for-service models pay healthcare providers, the providers aren’t as focused on providing quality healthcare to patients.
What does a value-based care model mean for healthcare providers?
A value-based care approach prioritizes patient care and can lead to more positive health outcomes. Ultimately, that means patients can receive the best care.
But healthcare providers can benefit from this approach too.
For instance, with a value-based care model, healthcare providers can keep hospital readmissions low and improve preventative care.
That’s because much of value-based care focuses on primary healthcare providers providing the first line of defense against health issues, thus enabling them to stop spiraling.
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A value-based care model also means care coordination can be improved. With standardized lines of communication between healthcare professionals, such as healthcare managers, and better coordination between healthcare professionals and patients, an increase in the efficiency of care can be achieved.
Basically, when there’s a higher degree of cooperation, healthcare providers can ensure patients receive the best care.
Furthermore, value-based care increases the accountability of healthcare providers for the quality of care that they provide, unlike the fee-for-service model. Also, it means that safety and security in a healthcare facility are on the highest possible level.
Check out this interesting post to learn more about value based care vs fee for service.
What are the benefits of value-based care?
At its core, value-based care is about helping to prevent healthcare issues and driving down the cost of medical expenses.
Medical bills can be reduced with this model because the approach has an emphasis on preventative care. That means lower hospital readmissions and fewer acute care measures.
Because healthcare providers communicate more clearly and efficiently with a value-based care approach, less time is wasted and patients gain more transparent experiences.
It also helps to prevent overcrowding in hospitals and other healthcare facilities because a preventative care approach means patients see fewer serious complications developing with their health issues. With fewer complications, patients spend less time in hospitals and spend less money on healthcare.
Not only does value-based care benefit individual patients and healthcare providers. It also benefits the whole community because a focus on care quality involves doctors and other healthcare professionals having incentives to ensure patients get well soon, rather than having monetary incentives.
At the end of the day, this approach means doctors are more likely to find permanent solutions to healthcare problems instead of pushing temporary solutions, as with a fee-for-service model.
Summing Up
To sum up, doctors and other healthcare professionals have no financial incentive when they use a value-based care model instead of a fee-for-service model.
In turn, that means patients can receive preventative care and other types of care that enable them to stay healthy or get better from a health issue more quickly. The emphasis is on patient care rather than financial gain for the healthcare providers. And, surely, that’s how things should be.
