It's Time To Make Population Health A Priority

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

While providers acknowledge the value of population health, few are actually engaging in the technology.

According to a study from Numerof & Associates, while population health is recognized as important in the healthcare industry, little effort has been given to tracking the actual progress that’s been made towards value-based models of care. In fact, they found 54 percent of respondents rated population health as “critically important” to the future success of their organization and nearly all respondents said it was more than “somewhat important.”

Healthcare IT Analytics reports the survey conducted in-depth interviews with 104 hospital leaders in an attempt to examine different approaches, motivators, and payment patterns with regard to population health.

“Among respondents reporting agreements with upside gain and/or downside risk, fewer than one in five said that they account for over 40 percent of revenue,” Numerof & Associates reported. “This leaves a large execution gap, as nearly half of these respondents expect such agreements to account for over 40 percent of revenue within two years.”

Providers in New England and those who have mission-driven population health tactics are higher success rate in transitioning to the value-based model of healthcare. The study notes that 63 percent of New England providers are seeing success with population health payment reform.

“U.S. healthcare organizations are entering a period of greater change and disruption than any industry this side of taxicabs,” said Dr. Rita Numerof, the firm’s president in a press release. “However, our study finds that most providers are still just testing the waters with these models and to date there’s still far more talk than action when it comes to population health management.”

“The traditional players in the payer, provider and manufacturer spaces are wrestling simultaneously with not just the question of how to change – but how fast,” said Michael Abrams, managing partner of Numerof. “A select set of leaders are making real progress, but overall we’re still a long way from where we need to be.”