Dr Suzanne Delbanco: Outcomes, Growth of Value-Based Payment Movement Remain Mixed

The pace of change to value-based payments has been happening quickly, but the real test is whether or not these payments produce higher quality and more affordable care, said Suzanne Delbanco, PhD, MPH, executive director of Catalyst for Payment Reform.

Transcript

Has the move to value-based payments been happening as quickly as you expected?

When we got started in 2010, there was so little value-based payment; It was maybe between 1% and 3% of payments, and in the last 7-and-a-half, 8 years, we’re at 50% now. So, I think that’s a pretty remarkable and fast change to how were paying healthcare providers. The big question is, how well are these payments working to produce the higher quality and more affordable care that we hoped they would?

What have been the outcomes seen so far in the move to value-based payments?

As a whole, I would say the outcomes of these value-based payment movement and the growth of payment reform are mixed. So far, we’ve seen some really great examples of improvements in certain quality measures and even more efficient use of resources. But, we’ve also seen examples of where there were really disappointing results, and we can’t even specify the positive or negative results by payment method. Even within a program and bundled payment, you might see some quality measures getting better, and some not. In an ACO environment supported by shared savings, you might see that length of stay in the hospital was reduced, but there was no impact on adherence to guideline for diabetes care. So far, were seeing real mixed results, even by payment methods.