Within health care systems, clinicians, payors and others are increasingly relying on health technologies to address the need for information and data, quality of care, efficiency, and more. The coronavirus pandemic has also accelerated the use of technology services such as telehealth and remote patient monitoring.
The increased implementation of technology in the health care industry can play a significant role in helping health systems move toward a focus on quality over quantity, a model known as value-based health care (VBHC), pointing the U.S. toward more effectively handling of future health crises.
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA)® report Reinvigorating Value-Based Health Care: Exploring the Role of Technology Innovation uncovers how tech can help address gaps in the health care system and accelerate the transition to VBHC.
Defined as the creation and operation of a health system that explicitly prioritizes health outcomes that matter to patients relative to the costs of achieving those outcomes, VBHC brings patients and their needs to the forefront.
With VBHC, health care providers are reimbursed based on patient outcomes instead of the services rendered. Measures taken by providers in this system, which focuses on long-term outcomes, may include preventive care services and routine health management — compared to waiting to provide care until patients are sick.
By encouraging the development of tools, infrastructure and processes that enable better health outcomes while minimizing costs, the VBHC model can break down barriers in our current health ecosystem that stem from challenges in efficiency, interoperability and more.
Reinvigorating Value-Based Health Care: Exploring the Role of Technology Innovation lays out four key technology recommendations that can drive forward VBHC in the U.S:
• Ensure standardization, collaboration and security to break down silos in health care systems, aligning various stakeholder goals and fostering collaboration for achieving VBHC.
• Capture and share interoperable, transparent data for all members of the health system to adopt to achieve value.
• Inform integrated communication, decisions and processes as technology closes the gap between patient values and health care system values.
• Drive efficiency and accountability with value-based payment approaches bolstered by technologies that allow access to relevant data and provide meaningful incentives.
The framework highlights how, beyond the existence of health technologies, application of technology to strengthen the elements of a VBHC system is what can drive results.
“One of the greatest gaps between the theory of VBHC and the practice of it is implementing resources in and out of the clinical environment,” said René Quashie, vice president of digital health, CTA. “Technology is crucial to pursuing VBHC — with the ability to collect, synchronize, measure and analyze the disparate data — and most important, provide better value and save lives.”
Access the full report to learn more about the role of technology in value-based health care.