More Family Physicians Are Investing in Value-Based Care

The movement toward value forges on, despite ongoing barriers for PCPs, AAFP finds.  

Family physicians have crossed a tipping point in which 54% now indicate that their practices participate in value-based payment models, according to a follow-up study conducted by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and sponsored by Humana, Inc.

What's more, 50% of those surveyed said they believe that value-based payment models will encourage greater collaboration between primary care physicians and specialists.

"Family physicians are doing the work to prepare for value-based care models,” said AAFP President Michael Munger, MD. “However, major barriers still exist that are stifling progress. Among the most commonly noted are issues related to administrative burden like a lack of staff time, lack of standardization for reporting requirements, and lack of data transparency."

Key findings of the 2017 Value-Based Payment Study include the following:

• Thirty-seven percent of value-based payments distributed within a family physician’s practice are based on achieving quality and/or outcome measures, an increase from 18% as reported in 2015.
• Thirty-two percent of family physicians report that they provide ongoing care management/coordination services to all high-risk patients, an increase of 23% from 2015.
• Forty-three percent cite hiring/hired care management and care coordinators, compared to 33% in 2015.
• Fifty-four percent of family physicians are in a practice that is updating or adding health IT infrastructure for data management and analysis to participate in value-based payment.

The top barrier to navigating and implementing value-based payment models that the AAFP and Humana identified in 2015 was lack of staff time (90%), followed by lack of transparency between payers and providers (78%), lack of standardized performance measures (78%), and lack of uniform insurer reports on performance (75%).