COVID-19 has forced us to rethink how we pay for and deliver health services. In this video from last week’s 2021 Los Angeles State of Reform Health Policy Conference, watch Carole Cusack, director of payer client engagement & strategy at 3M, Adam Barde, senior director of health transformation implementation at Blue Shield of California, and Tanya Dansky, MD, senior medical director of the MemorialCare health system, discuss these new financing and delivery models.
Cusack spoke about how the pandemic has exposed inefficient investment practices in the health care system.
“We have, over time, in the US system of care, overinvested in the capacity [for] low-value visits … On the contrary, COVID highlighted the fact that there was inadequate investment in crisis management.”
Barde broke down Blue Shield of California’s Pay for Value Payment Model Strategy, and how his organization is rewarding value rather than volume in its payment structure.
“We know that providers are burnt out. We know that the current modeling almost requires unsustainable productivity in order to get reimbursed [the amount that] providers deserve to get reimbursed. So we’re switching that to value, with a focus on other metrics such as quality outcomes …”
Dansky explained that MemorialCare’s initial 18-to-24-month roadmap for implementing its virtual health program unexpectedly needed to be implemented within one or two weeks with the arrival of COVID-19. This resulted in the creation of her organization’s resouce MemorialCare Now, a comprehensive online resource that directs beneficiaries’ to the health resource they need.”
“Whether someone needs a virtual visit, or an e-visit, or urgent care, or in-person emergency care, they can access it all in one place and get directly to information [they need] …”