Physicians Assert Trust in Small Group Practices During Shift to Value-Based Care

Physician migration from physician-led practices to hospital employment has shifted. While physicians working for a hospital or in a practice with some ownership increased by 32.6% in 2016, independent and physician led group practices reached 72% in 2017, according to a new report.

Black Book’s 2018 value-based care study evaluated the evolving trends among practices and hospital employment among physicians. Doug Brown, the Founder of Black Book Research, emphasized that physicians who are not affiliated with hospitals are realizing there are long-term savings when they assume risk and manage population health the way a hospital would in an accountable care organization.

“Population health and value-based care models are driving more coordinated, integrated and consumer-centric physician organizations,” Brown said in a statement.

According to Black Book, 68% of group practices with 10 or more physicians reported they would seek external advisement on financially and clinically transforming their operations before Q2 2019.

“Many physician organizations are not succeeding linearly through the transition towards alternative payment models and do not have well-defined plans to hit certain date-sensitive financial thresholds, hence the rise in demand for consultant firms with value-based care expertise in physician organizations,” said Brown.

A total of nearly 900 physician organizations participated in the Q1/Q2 survey, which measured the increased demand for advisors to help medical providers and practices make the move to value-based care via minimizing the administrative burden among payers and through supporting management of their individual health plans.

The study segmented client experiences as clinical transformations, financial transformations, accountable care and risk-sharing models, care coordination, and payer contracting engagements. The main findings included:

• 89% of all physician organization decision makers surveyed on hiring a value-based care consultancy agree they prefer an advisor with population health management and revenue cycle management expertise
• 21% of academic medical centers’ physician departments and clinics surveyed will have engaged a value-based consultancy by Q4 2018
• 93% of physician organization executives have no strategic plan for transforming population health management or value-based care solutions to confront known deadlines
• Less than 7% of physician organizations have started comprehensive value-based software vendor selection activities
• 95% of group practice and large clinic chief information officers say they do not have the information technology or staff needed to transform to value-based care end-to-end

“Physician groups are seeking advisors to help them transition to value-based care and manage long-term health plans for patients in multi-payer environments,” said Brown.

The new shift of how providers receive their payment will impact the entire organization and most physician organizations are not prepared for this change, according to the 88% of surveyed practice managers.

“Consultative approaches that emphasize physician engagement, culture change, actionable data and analytics are producing some very prepared and motivated physician organizations as they move from volume to value,” concluded Brown.