Accountable Care is Changing Healthcare

Accountable Care is Changing Healthcare

Value-Based Care, Digital Health, Providers, Health Innovation

Healthcare organizations are increasingly being held accountable for the health outcomes of patients. Accountable care – or value-based care – offers the promise of better collaboration among care partners and more personalized care plans for patients, particularly in maternity care. 

The state of maternal health care in the U.S. is subpar. Systemic challenges having to do with the way the healthcare system is structured and paid for leads to poor outcomes, low quality care and inequitable care. Changing that is the promise of value-based care.

Wildflower Health’s CEO & Founder Leah Sparks joined Atlantic Medical Group’s OBGYN and Ambulatory Director Fatima Naqvi to discuss where and how accountable care plays a role. We’re breaking down some key points here. For the full conversation, you can listen at Lemonada Media.

More than a year ago, Wildflower and the Healthcare Transformation Consortium (HTC), a collaborative of independent health systems in New Jersey, announced a groundbreaking partnership for a statewide value-based maternity care initiative to transform the delivery and financing of maternity care. The initiative includes collaboration with the HTC health systems, such as Atlantic Health System, and leading OBGYN practices.

Powered by Wildflower's unique maternity model, it includes comprehensive digital tools and health advocates to help clinicians assist patients with prenatal to postnatal care needs. A patient-facing digital platform helps care teams expertly engage, support, and remotely monitor patients between visits, while expanding access to existing resources and virtual services.

Meeting Mothers (and Listening to Mothers) Where They are

Collaboration among care teams is key to ensuring personalized and timely patient-centered care. Value-based care is about meeting mothers where they are and addressing their needs proactively. By focusing on preventive care, the model helps address potential health issues before they escalate. At the same time, it’s listening to patients, which is a reported gap and frequent concern for many. Patients can leave their appointment feeling their concerns weren’t carefully listened to, or care plans weren’t properly explained.

Through the Wildflower-HTC partnership, clinicians leverage Health Advocates and Health Coaches from Wildflower to extend the impact of their internal teams. These advocates and coaches serve as eyes and ears for practices, helping connect patients to available resources while also escalating care for at-risk women who need additional clinical support.

Moving Beyond Traditional Models to Digital and Value-Based Enabled Care

The current system of medicine is built on a model of reactive care, as opposed to preventive care. In part, that is due to the current economic structure. Compensation and reimbursement focuses on procedures and high acuity-complications, with a lack of funding for community-based prevention or non-clinical prevention. A more sustainable care model focuses on long-term well-being that improves patient outcomes. It’s not about the volume of services provided. Instead, value-based care encompasses two key components:

  1. A change in the way we pay for healthcare directly to providers
  2. Alignment with care models that enhance and improve medical costs, medical safety and quality

Integrations and digital tools are integral to managing patient care, from monitoring chronic conditions that have become more common during pregnancy, to guiding preventive measures. As well as educating and empowering patients, as Wildflower’s patient-facing mobile app does with clinically-trusted educational content, tools and trackers.

Reducing Maternal Health Disparities Led by Providers

Weaved into the fabric of value-based care is improving outcomes. Maternal health outcomes have been declining year after year, with a recent report from the March of Dimes highlighting the prevalence of maternity care deserts that lead to poor outcomes. Value-based care has the unique ability to address maternal health disparities by focusing on equitable, outcomes-based healthcare.

Healthcare providers are increasingly responsible for patient health outcomes. One example is the prenatal appointment schedule. Instead of a standard prenatal appointment, providers can use informational and directional clinical or  SDoH data to decide which patients need ongoing monitoring, which need an in-clinic appointment and which can leverage virtual for their current care needs.

Dr. Naqvi stresses the importance of this, saying “In my patient population, I am seeing patients who have difficulty accessing care to good providers. So why? Why are we still stuck in brick-and-mortar buildings? Care now can be delivered leveraging technology. It can provide equitable care. It can be where the patient is. Going from point of care to point of need.”

Wildflower Health’s CEO & Founder Leah Sparks joined Atlantic Medical Group’s OBGYN and Ambulatory Director Fatima Naqvi to discuss where and how accountable care plays a role. For the full conversation, you can listen at Lemonada Media.

If you want to learn more about how accountable care, technology, and targeted health solutions can shape healthcare delivery, contact us.