You get what you pay for. You’ve probably heard that phrase many times throughout your life. Although it’s true for many products and even some services, healthcare is certainly an exception.
Paying more for healthcare doesn’t mean you’re going to receive a higher quality of care. Sometimes, it results in you getting the same care as someone who paid less than you. Legislation on price transparency is designed to ensure patients know what they’re paying for healthcare services, but it’s not a perfect solution.
One of the healthcare industry’s biggest goals is transitioning to value-based care (VBC), in which the best health outcomes are achieved — at the lowest cost. Basically, it’s a care delivery model that prioritizes patient health outcomes through how health providers are reimbursed.
The Value of Value-Based Care
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) defines value-based care programs as those that reward healthcare providers with incentive payments for the quality of care they give to people with Medicare and support the agency’s three-part aim of better care for individuals, better health for populations and lower cost. These programs focus on patient-centered care with the goal of improving outcomes by reducing hospital admissions and readmissions, improving preventive care and delivering more personalized care for chronic care patients.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic somewhat slowed the pace of healthcare providers’ adoption of value-based care, it’s still a prevalent goal because of the numerous advantages it offers. With VBC programs intact:
- Patients spend less money to achieve better health.
- Providers achieve efficiencies and greater patient satisfaction.
- Payers control costs and reduce risk.
- Suppliers align prices with patient outcomes.
- Society becomes healthier while overall healthcare spending is reduced.
As we mentioned in a previous blog, value-based care models focus on helping patients recover from illnesses and injuries more quickly. They also help avoid the onset of chronic disease in the first place, resulting in fewer doctor’s visits, medical tests and procedures in addition to less money spent on prescription medications. 
By delivering proactive and preventative care, value-based healthcare systems can help ensure positive patient outcomes for their patients. Plus, employing value-based care results in providers being reimbursed for the time it takes to coordinate care and gives them an improved ability to address social determinants of health (SDOH) and achieve an enhanced whole-person view of care.
Reliable Resources for Achieving Value-Based Care
Goals and objectives are great — but useless without the right resources to achieve them. The same is true for value-based care programs. That’s why many healthcare organizations are utilizing a mix of digital health tools to promote value-based care. How? By attempting to boost patient engagement.
Three methods for engaging patients in value-based care are improving the care experience from start to finish, staying connected outside of the clinical setting and leveraging automated technology to scale engagement. With the emergence of healthcare consumerism, patients are already indicating a preference for accessing healthcare services through the use of digital health tools.
Healthcare organizations must ensure the digital health technology they use is not only well-integrated with their current workflows but also can be customized to meet the needs of specific patients and overall populations. The technology should expand the reach of the provider teams, assist them in conducting timely interventions and enable patients to maintain their focus on their health goals. Similarly, these digital health resources should allow patients to communicate conveniently and effectively with their clinical teams between visits.
The Best Digital Health Tools for Value-Based Care
According to a report from the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), technology — along with staffing — is one of the top two investment areas for leaders of primary care practices as they shift to a value-based care model. What specific digital health solutions are included? We have the answers!
Remote Patient Monitoring
Chronic disease management solutions such as remote patient monitoring (RPM) offer robust patient support both inside and outside of the healthcare facility. This enables providers to boost patient engagement and prevent severe complications from occurring, especially in patients who aren’t easily able to travel. It’s often used for patients who live in rural areas.
RPM is a good option for when patients need to be monitored for certain health conditions, including:
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
- Weight loss or gain
- Heart conditions
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Sleep apnea
- Asthma
Secure Two-Way Text Messaging
Healthcare providers and their teams have the ability to offer more value by delivering customized messages that contain patient education and health information that empowers patients to make a healthcare decision. A streamlined method for achieving this is through a HIPAA-compliant, two-way texting solution, as data suggests that patients would rather be contacted via text message
Being able to communicate and engage with patients at every step of their journey throughout the care continuum increases the likelihood that they will improve adherence to care, thereby elevating outcomes and driving value-based care at your practice.
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