What works in healthcare? Value, Value, Value

This episode features:

• Dr. Kyung Woo Park, president of the Seoul National University Hospital Healthcare System Gangnam Centre in South Korea.
• Dr Jean-Frederic Levesque, the CEO of the New South Wales Agency for Clinical Innovation and one of the partners for the leading better value based care initiative in Australia, which brought in value based healthcare for about 13 specific conditions.
• Dr Snehal Patel, director and co-founder of MyDoc, a Singapore based digital healthcare company, which integrates private outpatient care across Asia.
  

Today’s healthcare delivery is suffering from fragmentation, high levels of clinical waste and unexplained variance in treatment rates, costs and outcomes. Adding to the challenge are worryingly high staff burnout rates, administrative complexity and overburdened as well as under-resourced hospitals.

Another complicating factor: our healthcare systems tend to place their focus on acute and emergency episodes. Although studies have shown that prevention is more effective and least costly than treatment, there are limited financial incentives for longitudinal chronic disease management and population health. Add access constraints and unhealthy lifestyles in developing and industrialized countries to this mix, and it is clear that healthcare delivery and financing need to change.

Adopting a value-based model of care delivery has the capacity to transform healthcare in the Asia-Pacific region, supporting the industry’s focus on delivering better patient outcomes and experiences. Digital health modalities and big data can facilitate this shift from volume-based models to outcome-based solutions. However, before this model can become mainstream, strategies must be implemented to address the barriers hindering wider adoption.

Healthcare leaders are urgently seeking strategies and solutions to rebalance the status quo. Day-by-day, the healthcare community is collaborating to transition away from siloed and wasteful care delivery to more patient-centric and productive healthcare.

In contrast to traditional fee-for-service (FFS) systems, value-based care aims to pay for value rather than volume, by incentivizing providers and other stakeholders to improve access to care and health outcomes, while reducing the cost of care.

It focuses on what patients value and allocates resources according to the health outcomes delivered by the system. When put into practice, care quality will improve and cost will be contained. This is achieved by attaching payment to patient and population outcomes instead of paying per delivered care quantity, such as the number of procedures, outpatient visits and hospital admissions, regardless of the quality of these services.

There is still a huge amount of work to be done to bring seamless digital solutions and value-based care to reality.

Value-based programs are being introduced incrementally, but the overall pace of adoption is slower than previously expected. The main obstacles in the transformation towards value-based care: how traditional health systems are organized, financed and regulated today, and how financial and non-financial incentives are structured.

The widespread adoption of value-based care requires openness, trust and strong collaboration and partnerships between all healthcare stakeholders. Technology and IT deployments, legal and regulatory frameworks, clinical skills, training and payment reform must each be managed in a comprehensive and progressive approach to healthcare reform.

Healthcare Redefined is a series commissioned by Philips through the Economist Impact. The program explores the vital issues driving digital change and innovation in the healthcare sector in the Asia-Pacific region.

From leveraging digital health technologies and adopting new models of care, to addressing challenges related to workforce shortages and the impact of the climate crisis; the series will explore the opportunities driven by digital transformation to redefine the future of healthcare delivery in the Asia-Pacific region, while building sustainable and resilient health systems.

 
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