Top Challenges 2021:Transitioning to Value-Based Care Models

Among its other effects, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the growing importance of value-based payment models for primary care practices. Especially in the early stages of the crisis, when patient visits plummeted, value-based contracts provided a financial lifeline to practices that had them.

Value-based contracts can also help practices obtain resources for improving patient outcomes, according to former CMS administrator Mark McClellan, M.D., PhD. Addressing the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations 2020 fall conference, McClellan cited a CMS study showing that the further along in transitioning to value-based care a practice was at the start of the pandemic, the better its response in areas such as obtaining personal protective equipment and the ability to identify patients at high risk for complications if they contracted COVID-19.