More carrot, less stick: value-based care

This time they’re on your side with value-based care.

Oh great, you think to yourself, hearing about a new government healthcare program. More paperwork, less pay. And often new regulations and requirements are indeed a burden that slows you down and hits the bottom line. But with value-based care, there’s likely to be more upside than down.

In this issue of Chiropractic Economics, we’ll walk you through the future of pay for performance, and show you where your strategic opportunities lie.

Recently, a reader contacted us and cautioned that, “the spin doctors are again at work. If present-day chiropractic providers—those in the trenches—didn’t know any better, one would think that everything is just coming up roses for chiropractic.” This is a fair comment.

After all, you face headwinds in the form of lower reimbursement from a number of third-party payers, some of whom have reduced payments for bundled and subsequent therapies, and CMS is now initiating the long-awaited penalties for providers not submitting claims via ONC-ATCB-certified EHR systems.

Our mission is to warn you of threats and alert you to opportunities, not to cheerlead nor paint overly optimistic pictures. Ultimately, what you do with this information is your decision. Because what works for one DC may not work for another, we also try to show as wide a variety of practice models as possible. There are as many routes to success as there are to failure.

One thing you probably should not do is stand still. There’s no question that the healthcare landscape is changing, possibly even faster than the overall economy itself. Take advantage of those circumstances when the conservative nature of chiropractic care is a better value to the patient and the least expensive approach to a health concern.

Big data, more measurement, EHRs, and information gathering and sharing are all aimed in one direction: cost reduction. As long as you are positioned to be a key factor in that equation, you’ll be swimming with the tide and poised to gain from the trend.

To your success,