The current environment in health care reimbursement is causing providers to reassess the way in which they are reimbursed for services. For many years now, reimbursement has been moving away from fee-for-service and toward value-based reimbursement, and most notably alongside the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Implementing models for such reimbursement, however, has had a certain lag time. Among other reasons, change is time-consuming, expensive, and uncomfortable. However, over time, factors such as competition have encouraged providers to dip their toe in the value-based reimbursement for care model. This article discusses a particular type of model that reimburses for value-based care, that is, the clinically integrated network.
Most commonly, a clinically integrated model brings together hospitals and physicians in a newly formed entity known as a clinically integrated network. A CIN may take on a few different forms. One form may involve a hospital (or its captive professional corporation if we are in a corporate practice of medicine state) as the sole member of the CIN, with participating physician agreements running to the CIN. The physicians would have a strong presence on the governing board of the CIN. Physician empowerment is a key component of the CIN as the physicians are the front line to the provision of and reporting on care. Structuring the CIN this way alleviates the regulatory issues (e.g., the Stark Law) that physician ownership in the CIN would present. Another form of CIN may involve physician ownership (in addition to physicians provider agreements) running to the CIN. The hospital (or its captive PC) would also have equity in the CIN. Board membership in this scenario would likely be based on percentage of ownership in the CIN. The physician equity model would require fitting the arrangement into a Stark exception, which may be challenging.
Once formed, a major value proposition of a CIN is to leverage the network with governmental and commercial payers in contracting for payment arrangements, particularly given the CIN is now in a position to receive payment based on performance for quality and efficiency metrics.
In setting quality metrics, a CIN may borrow from the Medicare Accountable Care Organization Shared Savings Program model. (Both the CIN and the ACO strive for quality care and reward participants for the resulting shared savings.) Those metrics fall into one of the following four domains: (1) Patient / Caregiver Experience, (2) Care Coordination / Patient Safety, (3) Preventive Health, and (4) At-Risk Population.
Patient / Caregiver Experience measures may include timely care, appointments and information; doctor/patient communication; patient rating of doctor; access to specialists; health promotion and education; shared decision making; and health/functional status.
Care Coordination / Patient Safety measures may include readmissions; admissions for certain conditions (e.g., asthma, heart failure); percentage of primary care physicians who qualify for EHR incentive payments; medication reconciliation; and falls and screening for fall risk.
Preventive Health measures may include influenza immunization; pneumococcal vaccination; adult weight screening and follow up; tobacco use assessment and cessation intervention; depression screening; colorectal cancer screening; mammography screening; and blood pressure screening.
Finally, At-Risk Population measures would address chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension.
Physician participants in the CIN, guided in their care of patients by these measures, would then also report on the data they have gathered for each measure, the idea being that savings to payers stemming from positive results would be shared with the CIN and trickle down to the physician participants.
The CIN is just one model that encourages value-based care to obtain value-based reimbursement. Other models for the provision of medical care that consider value-based measures include integrated physician associations, physician-hospital organizations, and patient-centered medical homes. Whether or not a new health care law is passed (or the ACA is amended) in the near future, it appears that value-based reimbursement for care is here to stay.