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As value-based care becomes the end goal for many healthcare organizations, health systems across the country are acquiring primary care practices to achieve this mission.
Critical aspects of these acquisitions include ensuring that clinician-patient relationships are uninterrupted and establishing operations that generate value for consumers, according to Matthew Weiss, MD, managing director of the EY-Parthenon practice of Ernst & Young LLP, and Mallory Caldwell, a partner with the firm who leads EY America’s healthcare practice.
Primary care in itself is an essential part of value-based care.
“[Healthcare organizations] are buying primary care to get ready for a world where value-based care is the game of the day,” Caldwell told RevCycleIntelligence.
“If the objective of value-based care is to keep people healthy, so out of the system and out of the hospital, then you need more primary care to ensure that you’re focusing on health rather than just the sick care that comes from unmanaged patients.”
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the value of primary care and increased consumer expectations. Specifically, consumers began seeking primary care services at non-traditional locations, such as urgent care centers. Consumers turned to these new settings as primary care physicians filled their open slots with follow-up visits to maintain financial performance, Weiss explained.