As more healthcare organizations turn to value-based care, it’s starting to shift their perspectives of what care is and how it can be improved. Since reimbursement under value-based care isn’t contingent on the volume of services given, but rather on positive patient outcomes, it encourages a team-based approach to care that is committed to every patient as a whole.

The Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network, a partnership established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has set exciting goals for value-based care. They want 50 percent of Medicaid payments and 100 percent of Medicare and Medicare Advantage payments to be linked to value and quality by 2025. Organizations operating under value-based care know that success depends on getting patient treatment plans right at the beginning. Doing so requires that facilities understand everything there is to know about their patients and their unique needs. 

Population Health Management Is Key

It’s critical that organizations understand each patient, but getting a comprehensive overview of the people under their care is also supported by gaining insight into larger patient populations as well. Population health management eliminates the one-size-fits-all approach to care and ushers in more personalized, cost-effective strategies that are informed by a patient’s risk level. This is the very goal of value-based care. 

Population health helps facilities to:

  • Dedicate their efforts to prevention. Value-based care relies on preventative care. Facilities must collaboratively work to identify potential risks and be proactive about getting ahead of any health issues that could affect any patient within their care at any given time.
  • Be mindful of all conditions that may affect someone’s health. The conditions that could impact your patients’ health and care could be physical, social, and economic. This could include things like income status, someone’s access to basic resources, or even untreated behavioral health problems. 
  • Recognize the importance of technology. Facilities with access to the right innovative technologies can collect and analyze data and use that to inform their treatment and care plans. For example, targeting certain patients and encouraging them to be proactive in taking care of their health can help reduce illness and promote better, faster recoveries. 
  • Reduce costs. If a facility achieves more positive outcomes, it lowers its costs. This doesn’t only impact individuals, but the entire patient population at large. Illnesses and diseases can be managed before they reach more critical stages and certain administrative costs can also be eliminated as well. 

Managing population health helps healthcare organizations better understand the needs of their patients and the type of care it will take to bring about better patient outcomes. The end result is the best the healthcare industry could hope for: lower cost services and a healthier, happier population.