By Amanda Conschafter, blog editor
Patient-centered health care has garnered enthusiasm across the policy, industry and health care spectrums. But defining and implementing that vision leaves many grappling. In its new white paper “Building a
Patient-Centered Health System,” the Partnership to Improve Patient Care offers suggestions for how legislators can transfer patient-centered ideology into health care models – particularly value-based alternative payment models (APMs).
PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho elaborates on those suggestions in a recent op-ed:
To advance APMs that meet the principles of patient-centeredness—and therefore empower and activate patients in their own care—we suggest a number of common-sense steps. For example, as policymakers debate the future of APMs, they should have access to a dedicated stable of advisors who have a balanced understanding of the patient’s perspective. That’s why PIPC recommends the creation of an advisory panel on patient-centeredness to ensure that these principles are represented in the development of APMs….
Moreover, it is essential that the measures being used in APMs to determine “quality” should account for outcomes that are actually meaningful to patients. Policies and interventions aimed at strengthening patients’ roles in managing their health care can contribute to improved outcomes – thus, factors such as patient activation should be measured as an element of high quality care. Quality improvement efforts that systematically work to expand the patient’s (and their family’s) ability to participate in care are a pathway toward improving outcomes. Patient-centered payment and delivery models should be able to demonstrate that they are making an effort to not just engage patients, but to empower and activate them to participate in their own care through effective shared decision-making tools.
Read “A Patient Advocate’s Perspective on Paying for Value” to learn more from Coelho about why – and how – policymakers should apply principles of patient-centeredness to the nation’s health care system as it moves toward value-based payment models.