It has recently been concluded that a Management Service Organization (MSO) provides medical professionals with a unified collaboration-based approach that will allow each to achieve success – as a sole provider, and as part of a team of providers. Michael Porter, from Harvard Business School, recently expounded on the fact that business, as most medical providers know it, is now over. While incremental changes have been put into place, these changes have not been productive. He has explained to many that it is necessary to transition from the volume-based incentives for providers to programs that actually reward providers for providing value-based care, based on a patient’s individual needs. This is the foundation of a MSO – to work in collaboration in order to achieve the absolute best outcome possible for each patient, at the lowest possible cost.
The Problem
All medical providers want to provide patients with the care and services that they actually need. Unfortunately, the most current health plan system does not reward or provide any type of incentives for providers who provide value-based care. In fact, it is just the opposite. Those that offer value-based care to their patients receive absolutely nothing; however, those that provide volume-based care receive a vast array of rewards and incentives. Essentially, the current healthcare system has this “the more you do, the more you earn” type of incentive going on. This has to change. Healthcare should reward providers for value-based care. They should reward providers that actually strive to meet the health needs of their patients, not those that work on a “one-size-fits-all” model.
Essential Steps for Delivering Value to Patients
The current healthcare system is so stuck on providing volume-based healthcare services, that many have lost sight on how to deliver value-care to patients. It basically boils down to the following:
- When treating a patient, you should carefully document those treatments. Then, you should measure the actual results or outcomes associated with that patient’s health. Once you know the effectiveness of a certain treatment, you may then use that information to treat patients with similar issues in the future.
- Next, you must focus on the patient and not the healthcare plan. This means that your patient should be the center or the core of every action and/or step that you elect to take. This is often referred to as “Patient-Centered Focus” or “Patient-Centric”.
- If you want to deliver value-based healthcare, you must collaborate with other providers that also want to add value to the health and lives of their patients. There is power within the numbers, as they say….
- The providers that elect to collaborate with you should be devoted to developing a special care management plan that focuses on value-based care.
- Once the care management plan is developed, all providers should work together in applying the care management process.
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