There are times when the smartest approach to a problem is to draw against the tested experience of others. In many ways, champion practitioners of population health can – and should – guide how value-based care is defined and delivered. We interviewed three such champions for our GuideWell Insights podcast on this topic:
- Roderick King, M.D., a pediatrician and CEO of Florida Institute for Health Innovation;
- James Corbett, M.Div, J.D., Senior Vice President of Community Health Improvement and Values Integration at Centura Health, and Fellow, Safra Center For Ethics, Harvard University, and
- Carl Patten, J.D., MPH, Director of Research and Evaluation at the Florida Blue Foundation.
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What is population health?
Population health
- focuses on improving the health outcomes of a defined group, which could be classified by geography, ethnicity, income or education level, and any other relevant attribute.
- has the best opportunity to improve outcomes when a multitude of industry and community partners collaborates to address the needs of that group, including social determinants (e.g. income, education or housing) which impact health.
- makes preventative health central to its mission.
What is value-based care?
At its core, value-based care is meant to deliver health that is
- vetted for effectiveness (both in treatment and cost),
- delivered in a patient-centric manner, and
- shares risk between payer and provider.
New care delivery models will replace the standard fee-for-service (FFS) payment models that are less patient-centric, and can drive utilization over quality. As our CEO Pat Geraghty indicated, transitioning the industry from fee-for-service to value-based care models could take up to five years. Yet much progress has already been made, especially in Florida.
How they intersect
In many ways, population health can be considered the progenitor of value-based care.
- Population health evaluates clinical efficacy for defined groups. Value-based care will also use efficacy data to guide care choices, which improves quality and patient satisfaction.
- Population health accounts for social determinants that could influence the impact of treatment by using community partners and other clinicians beyond just the physician. Value-based care relies on similar collaboration with care partners to improve health outcomes and decrease risk.
- Both population health and value-based care emphasize preventative measures to improve health outcomes.
As the industry moves away from FFS towards value-based care, applying the tenets, experience and best practices of population health can ensure that the future of care delivery does indeed improve quality, lower cost, and place the patient at the center of the system.