While most stakeholders agree the shift toward value-based care is imminent, the current political environment and uncertainty surrounding healthcare reform have caused many healthcare organizations to slow or stall their efforts to prepare for risk-based medicine. 

Value-Based CareValue-based care is bending the healthcare cost curve, reducing unnecessary medical costs 5.6% on average while improving care quality and patient engagement—effectively starting to achieve the long-sought triple aim. Despite easing or ending of federal mandates, commercial lines of business are investing in value-based innovation, accelerating the decline of pure fee-for-service faster than previously projected levels. Indeed, today nearly two-thirds of payment are now based on value.

These insights and more are revealed in Finding the Value: The State of Value-Based Care in 2018, a new national study of 120 payers conducted by ORC International and commissioned by Change Healthcare. Third in a series, the research follows the company’s 2014 and 2016 studies, which established a baseline for healthcare’s transition to value and made it possible for this new research to look at trends and success metrics, and drill down into operational advancements since the first study was published four years ago.

Finding the Value: The State of Value-Based Reimbursement in 2018 will help healthcare stakeholders see how payers are responding to changes and demands in an uncertain market, what reimbursement models and technology are being used, how they are being operationalized and scaled, what’s working, what’s failing, and where payers expect value-based care to be in the future. Respondents were comprised of senior executives–director level and above–across medical management, finance, technology, network management, analytics, and strategy, who were familiar with value-based care activities at their organization.

While most stakeholders agree the shift toward value-based care is imminent, the current political environment and uncertainty surrounding healthcare reform have caused many healthcare organizations to slow or stall their efforts to prepare for risk-based medicine.