How value-based care can improve whole health

Value-based care is a simple idea for improving patient care. At its core, it encourages overall wellness and preventive treatments, which can improve your health and lower costs.

With value-based care, doctors and hospitals are paid based on the quality of care they deliver and the outcomes achieved. Compensation is linked to performance, which includes patient satisfaction, reduced hospital readmissions, and effective management of chronic diseases.

Value-based care is a long-term goal to keep healthcare costs down, produce better healthcare outcomes, and, most importantly, improve overall health.

Carelon Health provides the tools and resources for our doctors and nurses to practice value-based care. This helps our care team to drive better outcomes and increase patient satisfaction while providing better access and more affordable care options.

At Carelon Health, value-based care:

• Focuses on managing chronic conditions and providing comprehensive support to help patients avoid visits to the hospital.
• Encourages stronger patient and doctor relationships to get the right care at the right time.
• Enables care providers to focus on long-term patient care, giving patients a comprehensive view of their overall health throughout every stage of their lives.

Value-based care is designed to improve the overall health system with the added support of data insights, administrative support, and digital capabilities. Care providers can better help their patients to:

• Stay healthy through preventive care and wellness programs.
• Make more informed healthcare decisions.
• Find care across the entire healthcare system, including quality specialists, diagnostic services, and holistic care providers.
• Expand their access to primary care with alternative sites of care, extended office hours, digital platforms, and virtual care options.

According to Dr. Heather Swanson, an Internal Medicine Specialist at Carelon Health, value-based care is about returning to the basics of good care. "The goals of patients, providers, and insurers are aligned," she says. "We all want better health for our patients, using precious healthcare resources where they are most impactful. We get off course when we incentivize the wrong things, like the number of patients we see or the number of procedures we perform. As a care provider with Carelon Health, I can focus on what really matters: the overall health of my patients."

In this model, doctors can better practice medicine and spend more time asking questions rather than jumping from one patient to another every few minutes.

Carelon Health’s care providers make a meaningful difference in people's lives. Care providers fundamentally want their patients to be healthy, and value-based care enables them to deliver on the proposition of whole-person care.

"One of the biggest drivers of provider burnout is the conflict which can exist between healthcare systems and our moral compass," says Dr. Swanson. "Doctors want to have time to listen and truly get to know each patient, and cultivate relationships which build familiarity and trust. By doing that, you get happier, more fulfilled care providers and patients who trust and engage more in their health."

Value-based care helps doctors to:

• Talk to each other and coordinate care across different practices and appointments.
• Focus on an individual receiving care as a whole person by helping them address both their medical and non-medical needs.

As a patient, this means you can benefit from having all your care under one roof. Since your care is carefully coordinated, you can receive a wide range of fully integrated care to help you get healthier faster.

Value-based care is not a short-term fix. It’s a long-term commitment of time and resources to change the face of healthcare. That's why Carelon Health helps provide all the resources and support care providers need so they don't have to take on all the administrative burden, follow-up, and member engagement on their own. We are here to help care providers successfully care for the life-long health of their patients.

Dr. Swanson says, "When I joined Carelon Health, they said 'Be the doctor, take good care of patients, and let us know where there are challenges so we can help’.” With that level of support, you can take better care of patients while building a financially sustainable model. It's a win-win for everyone, but what I really appreciate is that it allows me to be the kind of doctor I imagined being when I first decided to go into healthcare. I'm not having to shortchange the patient in front of me because there are ten more in the waiting room."

Ultimately, value-based care is about the flexibility to meet our patients' needs, and Carelon Health is here to help care providers be the best they can be and make a difference in patients' lives.

Dr. Swanson is excited by this approach, which also supports the underserved. "I appreciate that Carelon Health is trying to bring quality healthcare to an underserved population, and going beyond the traditional physical treatment locations," she says. "We see patients who have fallen through every possible crack in our existing healthcare system. I love that we are dedicated to wrapping around these patients, trying to support them through all of their challenges, like homelessness, food insecurities, and untreated mental health issues. We strive to bring people to a form of wellness they've never known. That's a good thing. I am proud to be part of that."