Health care delivery and payment are undergoing a major transformation. Payment for volume, commonly called fee-for-service, in being replaced by payment for performance or payment for value.
This is one of the biggest changes in decades. Employers and employees should take full advantage of this opportunity to reduce costs, improve health and productivity and maximize their competitive advantage in their respective industry. With value-based plans, providers are rewarded for helping patients improve their health, reduce the incidents and effects of chronic disease and live healthier lives in an evidence-based way.
Sixty percent of the total amount spent on health care is caused by preventable chronic conditions. Value-based care differs from fee-for-service, in which providers are paid based on the number of services they deliver. The value in value-based healthcare is derived from measuring health outcomes against the cost of delivering the outcomes. Proactive employers who contract with Value-Based providers and implement proven worksite health and consumer initiatives should take full advantage of the opportunity to maximize their savings and their competitive advantage in their respective industry by partially self-funding their health benefit plan since it is typically the second or third largest cost of their business and savings here can make a big difference.
Value-Based Benefits Design
By making the transition to a value-based benefits program, your company can substantially improve its competitive standing in your industry or market.
If that sounds like a bold claim, that’s because it is. But, here at Nielsen Benefits Group, we have identified the key to attracting – and retaining – the right personnel, increasing engagement and enhancing your business’s productivity.
And that key is the employee healthcare benefits package you offer your staff.
If your first thought was “that sounds expensive,” we would like to introduce you to the value-based approach to employee healthcare.
The Challenges of Current Health Benefits Models
The growing problem faced by U.S. employers face today is the skyrocketing cost of health benefits. A leading contributor to this phenomenon is the long-standing fee-for-service model of healthcare delivery and payment.
Under the fee-for-service model, providers receive payment based on the number and type of treatments or services they provide. Today, some 60 percent of total health care costs in the United States are attributable to preventable chronic conditions such as hypertension.
With a value-based model, providers can more easily focus their efforts on the treatment of chronic conditions and on the coordination of care.
Shedding the Fee-for-Service Healthcare Model
The value-based benefits concept eschews this dysfunctional model and, instead, incentivizes providers who consistently produce efficient, high-quality outcomes.
By measuring treatment outcomes in terms of overall value, we have a better means of assessing provider performance than were previously available.
This, in turn, allows us to identify those providers and services that return the highest level of value for the cost. We can use our data to select those providers that offer the most significant benefits for improving long-term health and wellness.
Apply the Value-Based Benefit Concept for Your Business
When you tailor your healthcare benefits plan to promote maximum-value providers, you can offer your employees exceptional healthcare that is (sometimes significantly) less costly than traditional models.
You can enhance the value of your benefits plan even more by implementing select workplace initiatives proven to increase participant well-being and encourage healthy behavioral changes.
Implementing a value-based benefits approach reduces the employer’s costs as well as the amount participants must contribute while providing appreciable value to your employees.
Nielsen Benefits Group is maximizing the value-based model for employee health benefits, to provide our clients with a substantial advantage over their competitors in the marketplace. If this approach to employee benefits sounds too good to be true, we would like the opportunity to show you how our programs can make a big difference to your bottom line.
Contact us today to learn more about our comprehensive suite of employee benefits administration services and to see for yourself how value-based benefits will improve your business’s outcomes.