Value-based care: Change mindset, broaden data set

DALLAS – HME providers who don’t know where to start with value-based care just need to jump in, Amanda Yavorsky and Karen Lerner told Medtrade attendees on Tuesday. 

Yavorsky, senior manager for advocacy and strategic partnerships, HME division, for McKesson Medical-Surgical and Lerner, clinical vice president for Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare, provided attendees of their session, “What providers need to know about selling outcomes to the medical community,” with a checklist to get started, including changing their mindset on what they do and how it’s valuable. 

“(Your sales team) is talking to a referral and the first thing they say is, ‘We’ll get this product to you tomorrow,’” said Yavorsky. “We have to change that mindset. Who else says that? Amazon. We have to stop using Amazon’s lie. Yes, there are some situations where next-day deliveries are needed but it’s not always necessary.” 

Yavorsky and Lerner also recommended that attendees review their existing data and come up with examples of HME cross-selling opportunities; list at least three clinical features of HME that help reduce hospital readmissions; and discuss the most common chronic conditions that can benefit from HME. 

When it comes to data, Yarvorsky encouraged attendees to use their time at Medtrade to explore the increasing number of AI-related offerings. 

“Tracking data is difficult,” she said. “There might not be (an offering for) tracking, specifically, to prove out your value-based care story, but it could streamline your work processes so you can reallocate staff to treating the patient as a whole, rather than the mundane tasks that they have to do all the time.” 

Yavorsky also encouraged attendees to talk to referral sources and payers about making data sharing a two-way street. 

“There’s data that payers don’t have that they want access to, and you do,” she said. “My favorite is social determinants of health. Those of you who have delivery systems – you’re going into the homes and you’re seeing a ton of stuff. That’s key and that’s missing from the payer perspective.”  

Lerner told attendees that value-based care is the wave of the future, with 50% of all payments from managed care payers set to be based on that model by next year. 

“We don’t know (that percentage for) Medicare, but it’s coming, and it will include HME,” she said.