Physician organizations are increasingly demanding help from consultant firms to prepare for the shift from fee-for-service to value-based care, according to a Black Book study.
For the study, researchers polled nearly 900 physician organizations about issues related to value-based care.
Here are seven findings:
1. While nearly 33 percent of physicians were working for a hospital or for a practice with some ownership in 2016, independent and physician-led practices reached 72 percent in 2017.
2. Amid this trend shift, a majority of group practices of 10 or more physicians (68 percent) said they would seek advisement from an outside party on financially and clinically transforming their operations before the second quarter of 2019. Additionally, 21 percent of academic medical centers physician departments and clinics said they will have engaged a value-based consultancy by the last quarter of this year, according to the study.
3. Doug Brown, founder of Black Book, said: "Many physician organizations are not succeeding linearly through the transition toward alternative payment models and do not have well-defined plans to hit certain date-sensitive financial thresholds, hence the rise in demand for consultant firms with value-based care expertise in physician organizations."
4. Most physician organization decision makers hiring a value-based care consultancy (89 percent) said they want advisement from a population health management and revenue cycle management expert, according to Black Book.
5. There are various reasons why physician organization executives identified an increased demand for value-based care advisement. For instance, the study found 93 percent of these executives said there are not internal experts in these areas, and therefore they do not have a strategic plan activated "for transforming population health management or value-based care solutions end-to-end to confront known deadlines," according to Black Book.
6. Less than 7 percent of physician organizations said they have started to choose a value-based care software vendor and are considering getting help from consultants.
7. Nearly all group practice and large clinic CIOs (95 percent) reported a lack of needed information technology or staff in-house for transformation of value-based care end-to-end.
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