Dr Clifford Goodman: Why Focus on Value Will Persist Regardless of Changing Legislation

Amidst a turbulent political climate as Republicans endeavor to enact the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the shift to value-based contracts will continue due to the other market forces in play, explained Clifford Goodman, PhD, moderator at the ACO Coalition spring live meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona, and senior vice president and director at the Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research at the Lewin Group.

Transcript (slightly modified)

Do you expect Republican legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act to impact value-based reimbursement, or will gains in this area continue on regardless of new legislation?

Notwithstanding the recent political changes, including the AHCA and its ability to repeal and/or replace the Affordable Care Act, value-based reimbursement is going to continue. There are too many other market forces in play with regard to concerns about high drug prices, concerns about high prices overall for a variety of healthcare services, and the need for and focus on value for beneficiaries of all of our payer groups, provider groups, employers, and so forth.

They’re all caring about value. So, notwithstanding the extent of coverage of our populations in the United States, notwithstanding issues such as co-payments, deductibles, patient burden, and so forth, there’s going to be a continued focus on value.

I must say that it is also fueled in great measure by the continued innovation in the country. As long as we are helping to fund and provide incentives for innovation, there will be challenges about the trade-offs of benefits and costs for anyone making decisions about acquiring and accessing healthcare in the United States, so value-based contracting, outcomes-based contracting, so forth, I think will continue to evolve. That does not mean that it is a straight and narrow path to those, because in some instances it’s very difficult to implement those, but we will continue to make progress nonetheless.