Tech Gap Around Value-Based Care Provides Opportunity For VARs

By Megan Williams, contributing writer

While healthcare providers agree that VBR (value-based reimbursement) is the future of healthcare, few organizations have the clinical analytics and business intelligence tools to truly take advantage of the change, according to a McKesson Corporation survey presented by Health IT Analytics.

The survey highlighted the fact that 20 percent of healthcare providers believe switching to VBR will be “very” or “extremely” difficult, largely due to outdated health IT and a lack of standards around data. This is despite the fact that 90 percent of payers, and 81 percent of providers already rely on VBR for at least some part of their revenue.

David Nace, MD, VP and medical director of McKesson Health Solutions states: “The affordability crisis is causing unprecedented changes in the healthcare landscape, the most significant of which is the transition from the current volume-based model to myriad models based on measures of value. Most payers and providers expect value-based reimbursement to overtake fee-for-service by the year 2020, but they face daunting complexity in integrating complex reimbursement models, and say they have an urgent need for next-generation healthcare IT to successfully transition to value-based models.”

Direction For VARs

VARs working in clinical analytics may want to consider a focus on ACOs (accountable care organizations). The survey revealed that ACOs and regional markets are already in a good position to embrace VBR for the better part of their revenue, and have a positive outlook on the approach. Even among organizations that have not yet joined an ACO, almost 60 percent believe they will join one within the next five years. This all adds up to ACOs being a growing customer base for interested solutions providers.

Beyond ACOs

The survey also offered insights as to how to identify providers who would be the most interested in implementing population health management and clinical analytics technologies. Providers who are in good financial health are most open to the significant overhaul that a switch to VBR would entail.

Where To Focus

McKesson identified the top needs of providers in the survey, with 23 percent of providers and 41 percent of payers indicating that interoperability and systems integration come out on top for them. Data collection and access to analytics was chosen as a top concern for 20 percent of entities surveyed. According to the report, “Both payers and providers state that the tools they most urgently need to successfully implement value-based reimbursement are those that help clinicians understand and measure performance against quality and cost metrics.”

Recommended Reading

For information to delve deeper into your clients’ needs around clinical analytics, read “Using Clinical Data Analytics To Support Your Clients' Most Important Goals.”