The healthcare landscape is evolving towards a model focused on value, not just volume. This shift is driven by Value-Based Care (VBC), a payment and delivery transformation strategy that incentivizes healthcare providers to deliver high-quality care at a lower cost.
VBC moves away from the traditional fee-for-service model where providers are reimbursed for each service they deliver. Instead, it focuses on outcomes and cost-effectiveness. Under VBC, the healthcare providers are rewarded for meeting specific quality metrics and keeping patients healthy, while penalties are imposed for poor quality care or high costs.
VBC success pivots on achieving a balance between two key components – Quality & Cost.
While the entire healthcare spectrum is trying to traverse the ever-evolving VBC landscape, VBC is stepping one level up with VBC 2.0.
The current iteration, often referred to as VBC 2.0, recognizes the crucial role of patient engagement. Recent research and discussions within our team highlight that achieving patient satisfaction is a key element to VBC success. Patient satisfaction goes beyond simple politeness. It encompasses a sense of empowerment, partnership, and positive perception of the care experience. Empower patients with information and tools, fostering a collaborative partnership, and ensuring they have a positive perception of the entire care experience. Here’s how VBC 2.0 leverages technology and human touch points to cultivate patient engagement and move towards better patient satisfaction:
Human Touch:
By strategically combining technology with the human touch, VBC 2.0 creates a patient-centric environment that fosters engagement, improves outcomes, and ultimately leads to higher patient satisfaction. This translates to a positive feedback loop in the VBC model, where happy and engaged patients are more likely to adhere to treatment plans, leading to better health outcomes and lower long-term costs. As far as healthcare providers are concerned, this contributes significantly to retaining patients and acquiring referrals.
Let’s now delve deeper into what patient engagement entails and its impact on patient satisfaction.
Patient Engagement: Above & Beyond Adherence
Patient engagement goes beyond simply showing up for appointments. It’s a collaborative process where patients actively participate in their healthcare journey and includes:
Since value-based care models are focused on patient outcomes, engaging regularly with patients to ensure the desired outcome becomes important for the provider. At the same time, the patients also must play their part actively to achieve their desired outcomes. To an extent, wearable medical devices and other technological innovations contribute to achieving this. Building a robust patient engagement framework is essential for succeeding in value-based care.
Framework for Patient Engagement
Building a framework for patient engagement involves creating a supportive environment that educates, empowers and enables patients. Here are some key elements:
Tools for Patient Engagement
Healthcare providers can utilize a variety of tools to promote patient engagement, catering to different needs and preferences. Before we explore the tools, we must understand the patient psyche to gauge if the patient has low or high engagement levels. Based on this, a different strategy and set of tools are chosen by the providers to engage the patients optimally.
Patient Engagement Levels & their Impact on VBC
Patient engagement level can vary significantly from individual to individual. Here’s a breakdown of different levels of engagement and how they translate within the VBC model:
Low Engagement: These patients may be passive participants in their care. They might rely heavily on their healthcare providers to make decisions and may not actively seek out information.
VBC Impact: Low engagement can lead to poor adherence to treatment plans, potentially resulting in higher costs and poorer health outcomes.
High Engagement: These patients are actively involved in their health journey. They take initiative, ask questions, and participate in shared decision-making.
VBC Impact: High engagement patients are more likely to adhere to treatment plans, leading to better outcomes and lower costs, positively impacting VBC performance.
Measuring Patient Engagement Levels
There’s no single “one size fits all” method to categorize patient engagement levels. However, healthcare providers can utilize a combination of tools and observations:
Self-Reported Measures: Surveys and questionnaires can gauge patients’ level of involvement, understanding, and comfort in managing their health.
Reviewing Medical Records: Analyzing appointment attendance, medication adherence data, and communication patterns can offer insights into a patient’s engagement level.
Direct Observation: Observing interactions during appointments can reveal how actively patients participate in discussions and ask questions.
Patient-Reported Experience Measures (PREMs): Standardized questionnaires assess patients’ perceptions of their care and involvement in decision-making.
Considerations for Choosing Patient Engagement Tools
The most appropriate method for measuring engagement depends on your specific needs and resources. Consider factors like:
Patient population: Tailor your assessment approach to the specific demographics and health literacy levels of your patients.
Time constraints: Balance the information you need with the time available for data collection.
Accessibility: Choose methods that are easy for patients to understand and complete.
By understanding patient engagement levels and utilizing appropriate assessment tools, healthcare providers can identify patients who might benefit from additional support. This allows them to tailor their approach and implement strategies to promote higher levels of patient engagement, ultimately contributing to better outcomes and VBC success.
Low Engagement Tools:
High Engagement Tools:
The tools we explored highlight some of the diverse strategies available to promote patient engagement. By offering a spectrum of low- and high-engagement options, healthcare providers can cater to individual needs and preferences. As patients become more comfortable with technology and actively participate in their care, transitioning them from basic tools towards personalized apps, secure messaging, and co-creation of care plans can further enhance engagement.
As patient engagement levels increase, patient satisfaction, and patient experience, also increase. That’s how a well-designed engagement strategy can positively impact all three aspects within the VBC framework. Before we move on, let’s understand how closely related, and yet different patient engagement, satisfaction and experience are.
Patient Satisfaction vs. Patient Engagement vs. Patient Experience
Though these three are closely connected, it’s important to distinguish the core meanings in the healthcare ecosystem:
Patient Satisfaction: This refers to a patient’s overall feeling about their care experience. It encompasses factors like courtesy of staff, clarity of communication, and confidence in their provider. High patient engagement can lead to increased satisfaction.
Patient Engagement: As discussed above, engagement signifies a more active partnership between patients and providers in managing health. Higher engagement levels result in better outcomes.
Patient Experience: This encompasses the totality of a patient’s interactions with the healthcare system, including appointments, communication, and billing. Patient engagement can contribute to a positive patient experience, which in-turn helps retain them and earn the provider more recommendations.
While these terms are distinct, they are interconnected. Fostering patient engagement creates a positive feedback loop. Engaged patients are more likely to be satisfied with their care and have a positive overall experience. This, in turn, leads to better health outcomes and reduced healthcare costs, contributing to VBC success.
Understanding patient satisfaction goes beyond a simple smile or a “thank you.” It’s about quantifying patient experiences to identify areas for improvement and ultimately deliver better care within the VBC framework. Let’s consider the metrics and scores that translate patient experiences into actionable data:
Traditional Powerhouses: Standardized Surveys
Beyond the Averages: Additional Metrics and Considerations
While CAHPS and HCAHPS provide valuable insights, a multi-pronged approach can offer a more comprehensive picture of patient satisfaction. Here are some additional metrics to consider:
Beyond the Numbers: The Human Touch
It’s important to remember that patient satisfaction isn’t simply a collection of numbers. While metrics and scores offer valuable insights, it’s crucial to consider qualitative data and anecdotal feedback as well. Tools like open-ended survey questions and focus groups can provide deeper understanding of what truly matters to patients beyond the measured metrics.
By combining quantitative and qualitative data, healthcare providers can identify recurring themes and areas for improvement, ultimately fostering a more patient-centered approach to care delivery within the VBC framework.
Payer and Patient Satisfaction in VBC: A Tangled Web
Payers are increasingly integrating patient satisfaction into their VBC payment models. Here’s how it plays out:
The Payer vs. Patient Conundrum
While patient satisfaction is a vital component, there’s a potential disconnect between payer and patient priorities. The linked article highlights this conundrum:
Patient’s values and provider’s priorities tend to be different in a typical healthcare ecosystem. But in value-based care, the payer, provider, and patient priorities must be balanced to assess the desired and actual outcomes to determine the value provided, which in turn determines the provider incentive. This is important for both payers and providers because patient satisfaction and retention will be highly impacted by any imbalance in priorities.
Navigating the Maze: A Balanced Approach
Understanding both payer and patient perspectives is crucial. VBC programs can strive for a more holistic approach by incorporating a variety of patient satisfaction metrics alongside clinical outcomes and cost data. Here are some additional considerations:
By effectively utilizing these tools, addressing the payer vs. patient satisfaction conundrum, and implementing a balanced approach, VBC programs can create a system that prioritizes both high-quality, cost-effective care and a positive patient experience, driving better health outcomes for all stakeholders.
The landscape of healthcare is undergoing a dramatic transformation fueled by digital technologies. This evolution has fundamentally reshaped patient experience, moving from a passive, record-centric approach to one that prioritizes patient engagement and satisfaction.
Early Days: Limited Focus on Engagement
The history of digital health solutions is relatively young. The term “e-health” emerged in 1998, marking the beginning of a new era. Initial efforts primarily focused on Electronic Health Records (EHRs), offering limited patient engagement beyond basic patient portals.
The ACA Ushers in Change
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) played a pivotal role in shifting the focus towards patient engagement. By incentivizing preventive care and value-based care models, the ACA emphasized the importance of patient participation in managing their health.
The Rise of Patient Engagement
The widespread adoption of smartphones and wearable devices like Fitbit further fueled the patient engagement movement. These technologies empowered individuals to actively track their health data, fostering a sense of ownership and control.
The Value-Based Care Imperative
The current shift towards value-based care models has further underscored the need for patient engagement. Since payments are now tied to outcomes and satisfaction, healthcare providers must prioritize patient involvement to achieve success.
Looking Ahead: A Future of Partnership
Healthcare tech-solution and support providers are constantly working towards providing innovative solutions to educate, engage and satisfy patients. The future of healthcare hinges on a collaborative approach where patients and providers work together. Digital tools will continue to play a crucial role in empowering patients, fostering communication, and ultimately, driving a more patient-centered and satisfying healthcare experience.