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Understanding Value-Based Care: The Quiet Shift of Indian Healthcare from Mass Practice


Summary:

Value-based healthcare isn’t a buzzword; it is the new definition of success in healthcare. Here, the patient experience, preventive care, 24/7 health monitoring, and patient satisfaction are the bottom lines of good patient outcomes.


Table of Contents

  • Setting the stage for the shift to value-based care.

  • Traditional Healthcare Practices: Exploring the Existing Mass Practice Model in Indian Healthcare.

  • The Emergence of Value-Based Care

  • Difference From the Fee-for-Service (FFS) Model

  • Key Principles of Value-Based Care

  • Benefits and Challenges of Value-based Care.

  • Impact on Patients

  • Impact on Healthcare Providers

  • Implementation in Indian Healthcare: Discuss how value-based care is being adopted in India.

  • Anastomos-ing the future of value-based care in the Indian healthcare system.


Setting The Stage for The Shift to Value-Based Healthcare

With a burgeoning population, increasing chronic diseases, and rising healthcare expenses, India needs efficient and outcome-driven healthcare that goes beyond ‘mass practice’. This is the starting point of a value-based care (VBC) model in our healthcare system.

Initiatives like Ayushman Bharat and a rising emphasis on telemedicine are laying the groundwork for this transformation, focusing on quality, access, and cost in healthcare delivery. Stay with us as we discuss a crucial concept in the health and wellness industry today—a value-based healthcare model.



Traditional Healthcare Practices: Exploring the Existing Mass Practice Model in Indian Healthcare

Let us not be critical of the 'mass practice’ work model of Indian healthcare. With a population of billions and a dwindling ratio of healthcare facilities per number of people, this model is perhaps the only way of coping with the burden of health issues.


The Emergence of Value-Based Care

According to a report by EY-FICCI, it is necessary to overhaul the Indian healthcare system. The goal is not to disregard 'mass practice', but to modify it to align with the present model, emphasizing inclusivity and delivering genuine care. This revised approach should prioritize primary care, wellness, and improved health outcomes. This forms the basis of the value-based healthcare model.


Difference From the Fee-for-Service (FFS) Model

FFS is a standard healthcare payment model in which a medic is paid a fee for each service, test, procedure, or consultation he provides. As practitioners can have a financial incentive to order more tests or procedures, this method has been criticized for potentially driving the overuse of healthcare services.

Value-based care is different from fee-for-service in how it rewards and pays healthcare providers. With a shift to VBC, FFS isn't going away; instead, it will change to meet the demands of the value-driven healthcare industry. These include fees for---preventive care, care coordination, and effective management of chronic conditions.


Key Principles of Value-Based Care Model

The principles or key approaches to understanding value-based care are:


  • Patient-centric Approach

Patients form the crux of VBC. The patient’s complaints, needs, desires, preferences, and goals complete the treatment landscape. This improves the management of chronic diseases, patient outcomes, and the overall health and wellness of patients, and reduces hospital admissions.  

The result? Shared decision-making! Healthcare professionals are aligned with the patient's goals and expectations.


  • Evidence-based and Data-driven Treatment Plan

Understanding value-based care includes science and evidence. VBC uses detailed patient information, and data analytics to find trends, patterns, and scope for improvement. This data should include several degrees of information, enabling patient-specific insights from a broader population base.


  • Prioritize Prevention Over Cure

VBC truly adds ‘value’ to the patient’s life. The value-based healthcare model shifts focus from treating illnesses to prioritizing prevention and enhancing clinical outcomes. This includes vaccination, health tests, and lifestyle education to lower health risks. Emphasizing this not only improves patient well-being but also lowers long-term healthcare expenses.


  • Value-based Incentives and Bundled Payments

Though the value-based care model is structured to reward the quality of service and not the volume of practice, both the FFS and VBC models are user-friendly for healthcare professionals. The idea of value-based care is complete when patients are satisfied at affordable costs.

Hospitals and other medical facilities should be rewarded for health outcomes, such as lowering readmissions or increasing patient satisfaction. Bundled payments, in which a single payment covers all services associated with a specific condition or procedure, can promote cost-effective care delivery.


  • Co-ordination and Harmony in the Organization

The value-based healthcare model pivots on the harmony and coordination of healthcare professionals, insurance payers, and patients. Effective interaction and coordination of services minimize redundancy, increase efficiency, and improve the patient experience.

Providing integrated care after discharge improves outcomes such as improving the overall patient experience, lowering readmission risks, and ensuring strict adherence to prescription rules.


Benefits and Challenges of Value-based Care

Value-based healthcare offers the best of both worlds; it is beneficial for the healthcare worker as well as the patients who are on the receiving end:


  • Impact on Patients

  • Offers customized treatment plans

  • Ensures patient follow-ups

  • Uplifts quality of care at out-patient departments and hospitalizations

  • Stresses on preventive care more than treatment costs

  • Cuts down on health care costs

  • Builds patient-doctor trust


  • Impact on Healthcare Providers

  • Boosts patient trust

  • Enhances patient satisfaction and feedback

  • Encourages fame, brand value, and patient referrals

  • Streamlines workflows and coordination

  • Ensures data privacy

  • Reduces the burden of work: quality over quantity

  • Better work-life balance

  • A happier workplace organization

  • Boosts financial returns


Implementation in Indian Healthcare: Discuss How Value-Based Care is Being Adopted in India

The paradigm shift from volume-based care to value-based services has already started in India.

Government initiatives, such as Ayushman Bharat, promote value-based care by connecting reimbursement to patient results. Several healthcare startups and semi-autonomous bodies are testing value-based care models in pilot projects concentrating on specific diseases or patient populations. The incorporation of digital health technology itself is the starting point of value-based care. The collection and analysis of patient data in order to support value-based care decisions. Patients' awareness regarding value-based treatment is increasing, and they are looking for organizations that prioritize quality of work and value their time and money.


Anastomos-ing the future of value-based care in the Indian healthcare system

Awareness on both ends of the line—for healthcare professionals and patients—is vital to a value-based care model. There is a fine line between ‘‘seeing X number of patients a day’ and ‘treating patients successfully’. Understanding this difference forms the crux of ‘adding value’ to patient outcomes.

Anastomos is a groundbreaking, end-to-end, full-spectrum solution for careers in healthcare. Whether you are an aspiring science student, a recent graduate, an experienced professional, or a veteran, ANASTOMOS can walk you through every step of your professional life and help you add value to your practice.


Wish to know more? Contact us:

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