70% Of Providers Don’t Think Accountable Care Is Worth It

Despite widespread participation in value-based payment arrangements, few providers think that accountable care reimbursement structures offer enough reward for the risk.  Half of providers believe that value-based reimbursement will eventually foster population health, reduce costs, and improve the patient experience, says a new report from Availity, but 80% have found a need for more staff, more time, and more investments in order to make it work.

“Providers are starting to get some real-world experience; it’s not speculative,” said Ryan Miller, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development at Availity.  “We’re starting to understand what it’s going to be like to move to these models. It’s harder to track progress, and you’re going to need more staff to do the work and be successful in the models,” he continued. “And that’s a really challenging proposition.  It just makes it really clear why better solutions – more automated solutions – are needed to be successful.”

While 75% of providers are participating in some form of accountable care program, just 20% of revenue is currently generated by pay-for-performance models.  Two-thirds of providers believe accountable care is best suited to large-scale organizations due to the complexity of infrastructure and increased demands on an organization’s time and staff.  Only a quarter of providers think that value-based payment models make it easier to understand and forecast revenue, while fewer than a third think pay-for-performance models will net them more money overall...