Despite President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promises to repeal the Affordable Care Act, industry experts say value-based care initiatives will likely continue under the new White House administration.
Healthcare finance takes the spotlight
Although it’s likely that certain aspects of the ACA will change, demand for value-based care will not go away, write NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s Emme L. Deland, senior vice president and chief strategy officer, and Jonathan Gordon, director of NYP Ventures, in a post for NEJM Catalyst.
“At the moment, it seems likely that healthcare financing will get more attention than healthcare delivery under the new administration,” they write.
François de Brantes, executive director for the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute, agrees, writing in a separate post for NEJM Catalyst that the bipartisan Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act will help fuel the movement away from fee-for-service payments.
Fewer regulations foster innovation
But Deland and Gordon predict that the new face of the White House will push for a less-regulated approach to the new alternative-payment models and a move toward federal Medicaid block grants. And it's possible that the new approach will encourage more healthcare innovation as states and providers seek different delivery reform options.
Expansion of bundled payments also holds promise under the new administration, Charlene Frizzera, president of consulting firm CF Health Advisors, tells Health Data Management. The model creates a new way of delivering patient care with providers working together before, during and after a procedure, she says.
Patients stay in the center
And the patient will remain at the center of care, she says. “Under any scenario, the idea of a patient-centered continuum of care is at the center,” Frizzera tells the publication. “The government can help providers behave differently by the way they pay, but for this all to work, patients are going to have to behave differently, too. Moving forward, they have to be more engaged.”
Reform favors the feds
Meanwhile, Chas Roades, chief research officer for the Advisory Board Company, tells The New York Times that he suspects Republicans will now focus their attention on reducing what the government pays for medical care, not rethinking how it reimburses doctors and hospitals.
“I think it is the end of payment reform, but the beginning of payment cuts,” he told the publication.