The cost of health care in the United States has been a cause for concern for several decades, yet health care expenditures in a fee-for-serve environment continue to go up. The rising expenditures have led to new payment approaches other than billing for services rendered. The paradigm is rapidly changing to one focused on population health and value-based care—meaning paying clinicians to keep patients healthy and rewarding quality care. One such approach is through accountable care organizations (ACOs). How many of us are in an ACO? Tieder et al. (10.1542/peds.2018-0502) decided to look into this through a survey sent to AAP members in 2016 asking about pediatrician experience with value-based payments through ACOs or other pay-for-quality performance models. 786 of 1,614 pediatricians randomly surveyed responded and 52% of respondents reported they were receiving some type of value-based reimbursement. How excited are our colleagues about moving in this direction? As of 2016, only about a third felt value-based payments would have a positive effect on our ability to improve the quality of the care we deliver; however, more of those receiving payment based on quality felt this approach was better.
What do you think about value-based care? Do you agree that it is the right direction for us to go in? If you are getting it, has it improved the quality of your practice and your ability to get adequately reimbursed for the work you and your office or hospital team do? Share with us your thoughts on value-based care by responding to this blog, posting a comment on our website where the article can be found, or simply sharing your ideas on our Facebook or Twitter sites.
