Although value-based care offers significant benefits to patients, the transition from a fee-for-service model presents some major challenges for healthcare providers. Some of the biggest challenges include dealing with time-consuming (and potentially burnout-inducing) administrative work, navigating large volumes of disorganized patient data, and being understaffed.
There are some important steps that healthcare organizations can take in order to navigate these challenges successfully. For example, it can be very helpful to ensure that an organization’s leadership includes physicians. By having some physicians split their time between clinical and leadership work, organizations will gain a first-hand understanding of the day-to-day realities of treating patients. This input can be especially valuable when it comes to negotiating contracts, designing internal workflows, and evaluating possible organizational changes.
It is also crucial to ensure that healthcare providers have the tools they need to thrive within the context of value-based care. For example, HCC (Hierarchical Condition Category) coding is critical to risk adjustment, but the coding process can be very time-consuming. Providing physicians with a robust solution for streamlining the coding process can make a powerful difference. Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools can be particularly useful – helping ensure physicians do not miss any relevant HCCs, while also saving valuable work time and enabling them to focus more on providing high-quality care to patients.
In addition, healthcare organizations can help physicians improve their performance by providing them with analytics tools enabling them to track performance in real time.