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A Feb. 24 discussion among hospital system executives at the Value-Based Payment Summit focused on the challenges and opportunities they face in transitioning to value-based care. They discussed barriers such as data management, infrastructure costs, and risk adjustment methodologies, as well as where they expect to focus their efforts in the future.
Rural hospitals can have unique challenges adopting value-based programs, explained Julie Yaroch, D.O., president of ProMedica Charles and Virginia Hickman Hospital in in Lenawee County, Michigan. Many of these models require the same information, but they have different definitions and different exclusion criteria, and different time frames, she said. “Not all of this data can be pushed electronically. A lot of it is manual. Being a smaller hospital, I also have low volumes in some of the metrics, so therefore I can’t meet the threshold.”
Yaroch also raised the issue of risk adjustment methodology. “Does that fully account for clinical complexity and severity? It’s not just about making a diagnosis and choosing the right lab or the right procedure. There’s so much more that goes into the care. We need to start looking at the complexity a patient brings,” she said.