In a 21-week online certificate program, Boise State walks students through the changing methodology for the future of healthcare payment.
“Value-based healthcare is a transformation in the payment models for the way healthcare is currently being run," said program director Jenni Gudapati, “In the past, healthcare has been reimbursed strictly on volume, whatever procedure was done, there was an associated billing-code with that procedure."
"As health care is transitioning, it’s moving towards reimbursements aligning with what is more valuable."
What’s more valuable is patient outcomes, better performance and decreasing overall cost.
“I think it’s really a game-changer, I think we can change the cost and the quality, lower the cost, increase the quality, again because we’ll be paying physicians and providers for those outcomes rather than that sick care”, said vice president of provider partnerships for Blue Cross of Idaho Todd York.
Blue Cross of Idaho knows all about this model, and while it’s not exactly a new concept, they have made strides to make it the new norm.
“Probably about three years ago, and less than 40% of our payments we made were through these value-based arrangements, we’re now close to 70%," said York.
The new model benefits both the patients and the physicians.
“For physicians that are in our value-based care arrangements, we provide them a plethora of data about their patients," said York.
This means in addition to the physician knowing what care goes on in their office with that patient, they are also equipped with information about each patient's other hospital, emergency room, or specialist visits, for a complete health picture.
“They’re going to ask the patient about that in their visit, but we’re providing that in areal time basis, so we actually provide the next day, when someone has gone to an emergency room to their primary care physician in our value-based programs," said York.
Boise State’s new program kicks off in January for students, and it’s specifically designed for working individuals already in the healthcare industry.
