A December 2020 HFMA study assessing the outlook for alternative payment models (APMs) reinforced earlier findings suggesting that support for the principles of value-based payment is strong among the nation’s hospitals.
The simple fact that two thirds of the optimists in the GHX-sponsored study, whose findings are reported on the previous pages, attribute their current levels of success to planning and preparation points to a widespread continuing commitment to the value focus. This finding harkens back to a key finding in the initial HFMA-GHX study published in April 2020, which found that organizations having the most-developed capabilities required for successful risk contracting also tended to be those with the most revenue at risk, both currently and in their five-year projections.a
Another implication of the December 2020 research is that a combination of two factors may be holding back those organizations that lack the optimism of the first group of respondents: They are simply averse to taking on risk, and they see no reason to move forward with risk contracting if they don’t have to do so. For these organizations, the benefits of value-based care may seem murky, at best. And they could benefit from clear examples of the successful pioneers in value-based care to become more receptive to taking on risk.
Part of the challenge may be that fee-for-service is such a known quantity, while value-based payment is far from a unified and fully coherent concept. That point was highlighted by Kevin Roberts, MBA, CPA, executive vice president and CFO for Geisinger in Danville, Pennsylvania, who shared insights regarding his organization’s long-standing success with value-based payment.