As hospitals work to transition from the volume-based care model to value-based care, they can cut system-wife costs and improve outcomes through "value management offices," according to a blog post from the Harvard Business Review.
This centralized office is designed to oversee value-based initiatives, such as bundled payments, according to the article. The office can serve as a "center of excellence to assist decentralized clinical units in outcomes and cost measurement and management, set priorities for continuous improvement projects, facilitate the creation of value-based payment models with insurers and employers, and ensure that new information technology platforms are aligned with the value agenda," the authors write.
Although many hospital leaders may be hesitant to add another potential layer of bureaucracy, pressing forward with the transition without centralized leadership shepherding the process is far less cost-effective, write the authors. They cite two examples that demonstrate the success of the value management office model due to leadership involvement.
Houston's MD Anderson Cancer Center, which established its Institute for Cancer Care Innovation in 2008, uses time-driven activity-based costing to monitor treatment costs for medical conditions across the care continuum. Office staff provided hospital leaders with resources for a pilot project and assisted them in adapting the pilot to the entire institution.
Coauthor Catherine MacLean, M.D., chief value medical officer at New York's Hospital for Special Surgery, oversees the organization's value management office that was established last year. Under her leadership, the office focuses on improving the collection of outcome measures, factoring care quality data into active care delivery and adapting process improvement strategies to overall population health management
To learn more:
- read the blog post