Value-based care may be the wave of the future, but physicians need help from insurers and policymakers in making the transition a success, Chet Speed, vice president of public policy for the American Medical Group Association (AMGA) said in a recent announcement.
While the trade association predicted that fee-for-service payments to multispecialty groups and integrated delivery systems will decline by 24 percent over the next two years, with risk-based contracts taking their place, its survey of 115 respondents identified several areas of concern for medical groups:
- Twenty-two percent of respondents said no payers were currently offering risk-based products in their market, while nearly half (48 percent) said that fewer than 20 percent of the insurers in their market were doing so.
- Forty-one percent of respondents said they were three to five years away from being able to accept downside financial risk in payer contracts, while 17 percent said they'd need six years or more to prepare.
- Revenues from commercial accountable care organizations (ACOs) and capitation contracts are poised to double within the next two years, while revenues from federal ACOs and Medicare advantage will likely grow 20 percent to 36 percent during the same time period.
As FiercePracticeManagement reported previously, some practice experts recommend that physicians get involved with ACOs and risk-based contracting now while the stakes are relatively low, as the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) will make value-based reimbursement a reality for many physicians beginning in 2019.
In the meantime, the AMGA urged the federal government and commercial tools to provide tools such as access to administrative claims data, improved data transparency and improved attribution, benchmarking and risk-adjustment methods to help streamline the transition to risk-based payments.
To learn more:
- read the announcement