Health Outcomes: Facts & Figures

Physicians and health plan executives agree that healthcare has made little progress toward value-based care since last year, according to a survey by Quest Diagnostics – more than two-thirds (67 percent) of physicians and health plan executives surveyed said the United States still has a fee-for-service system, up from 63 percent last year. Fifty-seven percent of health plan executives said they believe physicians do not have the tools to succeed under value-based care, up significantly from 45 percent in last year’s study. Only 39 percent of physicians said electronic health records (EHRs) provide all the data they need to care for their patients. And 80 percent of health plan executives said they believe investments made in technology for quality initiatives have improved the value of healthcare for patients, but only 68 percent of physicians agreed. Additionally, 62 percent of health plan executives said progress has been made toward alignment between payers and providers, but only 41 percent of physicians agreed. Also, more than six in 10 of all physicians and health plan executives surveyed agreed that technologies such as bioinformatics, artificial intelligence, the SMART App Platform, FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources), and machine learning have potential to improve value-based care. Almost two-thirds (64 percent) of health plan executives said one advantage of blockchain in healthcare is that it can promote shared data across organizations to surmount interoperability.

“While our study suggests the healthcare industry still has a long way to go to deliver value-based care, it reveals avenues to speed the journey,” says L. Patrick James, M.D., chief clinical officer, health plans and policy, medical affairs, Quest Diagnostics. “Measures that optimize EHRs, make data more accessible and insightful and reduce complexity of quality measurement are much needed steps to accelerate this transition. First, however, it’s clear that health plan executives and physicians need to better align around a shared vision of how technology and data can improve patient care.”

 

Source: “Stalled Progress on the Path to Value-Based Care,” Quest Diagnostics