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Published: April 7, 2015

The end of the sustainable growth rate shuffle

Out with fee-for-service; welcome value-based healthcare!

Early next week, the U.S. Senate is expected to address House Resolution 2 (H.R.2), the long awaited “doc fix” law designed to bring about the end of the sustainable growth rate (SGR) - the broken formula that determines at what rate physicians are compensated for services provided to Medicare patients. The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed H.R. 2 on March 26th by a vote of 392-37.

If the Senate passes the legislation and President Obama signs it into law as anticipated, the SGR, which compensates physicians based on the volume of healthcare services provided, will be phased out over the next decade.  In its place:  a reimbursement model based on value and health outcomes.

Robert Wah, president of the American Medical Association, said in a statement that the measure "supports innovative new delivery and payment models that will help improve care quality, health outcomes and lower costs," while "also assuring access to care for children, low-income individuals and families by extending funds for [CHIP] and community health centers."

Curant Health has been providing value-based care in a fee-for-service world for more than 15 years. While the road to value-based pay will be bumpy, we welcome the transition wholeheartedly and offer our knowledge and services demonstrated to improve outcomes and reduce costs through effective, patient-centric medication management to prescribers, payers and patients suffering from the most difficult to treat, chronic conditions.

As Curant’s CEO, Patrick Dunham, recently told Forbes contributing writer Robert Szczerba, “Not all of the burden of accountability should lie with the physician,” explains Dunham. “Lawmakers and policy experts should consider the proper use, engagement and role of accountability for each provider type (including clinical pharmacists) and ask, ‘Are all available resources being tapped to positively affect the outcomes and cost variables in the healthcare value quotient?’”

Read the entire article here.

Want to continue the conversation on the role pharmacists and medication management play in delivering value-based healthcare? We'd love to hear from you! Send us an email at klindsey@curanthealth.com or give us a call at 866-437-8040, x 253.

 

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