Technology Infrastructure Needed to Support Value-based Care

The U.S. healthcare system’s transition away from fee-for-service toward value-based care represents the most significant change in how healthcare is delivered and paid for in generations. According to a recent study by McKinsey, the percentage of the insured population in value-based contracts is expected to grow by 10% per year from 2022 to 2025.

Ideally, an emphasis on value-based care, as well as the principles that drive the concept, will lead to higher-quality care delivered more efficiently, and cost-effectively. By incentivizing providers to focus on their patients’ health outcomes under value-based arrangements – as opposed to the volume of procedures they perform under fee-for-service – these new payment models offer the promise of helping the healthcare industry achieve the elusive quintuple aim: improving population health, reducing the overall cost of care, enhancing the patient experience, boosting provider satisfaction, and advancing health equity.

Without a doubt, the evolution toward value-based care holds the potential to improve nearly all Americans’ overall experience with the healthcare system, but one often-overlooked part of this transition is the need for the digital health infrastructure necessary to support the operations of sometimes-complicated value-based contracting arrangements.