3 Reasons Why Value-Based Care Options of Patient Engagement Improve Treatment Quality for Patients

When it comes to value-based care options, experiments are still ongoing with better and highly-evolved choices expected to come to the forefront in the days to come.  However, it does not in indicate that the present options in any way lack the treatment quality for patients.

Rather there has been a massive rise in the number of people looking for the flexible and economical ways of treatment that a value-based healthcare system offers -- and the demand has multiplied in all the three domains of healthcare including physical, mental and social. 

The constant pursuit of mankind to create a healthier society has been stunted by the emergence of chronic diseases in aging populations.  It is where a value-based healthcare concept seems to be highly effective and in line with the real objective of health care: increasing value. The health outcomes measure value which certainly matters to the patients who analyze it relative to the cost of achieving these outcomes.

Understanding The Genesis Of Value-Based Care

A value-based care is a type of reimbursement that decides the payments for care delivery based on the quality of care provided by the care provider. It rewards providers for both effective patient engagement, care effectiveness, and efficiency. In the past few years, this type of reimbursement has evolved as one of the most efficient alternatives and potential replacement for the regular fee-for-service type of reimbursements in which the patients/payer pay the provider retrospectively for the services they deliver on annual fee schedules or bill charges.

The traditional fee-for-service reimbursement model promotes quantity of services. However, lately, the federal medical programs have developed multiple reimbursement programs rewarding healthcare providers for the quality of care they provide to the patients. The primary aim of such value-based care programs is to fulfill three objectives:

1. To provide better care to individual patients
2. Improving the strategies for population health management
3. Reducing the overall healthcare costs

Better Patient Engagement And Contribution Of Value-Based Care

According to a study that was published in BMJ Quality & Safety in 2017 the chances of re-hospitalization were reduced by 39% with better patient-provider communication and a higher score of patient satisfaction. Those patients who perceived that their healthcare providers were truly giving them due attention and were listening to them keenly reported 32% less readmission.

The study also showed that better patient engagement improved the overall wellness including patient-goal setting. A value-based care system ensures that the patient and provider engagement is focused and the caretaker gives all the attention to the patient. The value-based payment structures make the maintenance of a consistently high level of health of the patients possible and it can be further enhanced with better communication and patient education.

Also visit: http://www.lifecyclehealth.com/blog/2017/3/8/4-provider-patient-communication-considerations

3 Reasons How Value-Based Care Can Improve Treatment Quality Of Patients

1. CUTS DOWN MISDIAGNOSIS CHANCES

With the cost pressures in the healthcare sector increasing steadily, established remuneration models related to healthcare services are now undergoing transition around the world. Now fees for performance and value-based systems are most eagerly preferred over the increased fees for service. Even the major players in the medical fraternity including Medicare and Medicaid in the United States, the National Healthcare Institute in the Netherlands, the National Health Service in the UK and many other leading university hospitals in Europe have taken a step in this direction.

Correct and timely diagnosis is the path to a successful and positive patient outcome. When a patient visits a doctor for the first time, the initial few minutes are dedicated to determining the subsequent steps that directly influence the cost and of course the treatment. The diagnosis itself is a complex challenge it has a high potential for human error as well as errors that arise from the whole system itself.

Misdiagnosis is a serious issue that can lead to unnecessary treatment of non-existing conditions or improper treatment or even proper yet delayed treatment. All these issues not only impact the patient but also the provider. More often, the diagnostic errors are caused as a result of staff shortages, temporary overwork or even time pressure. The occurrence of diagnostic errors can be restricted with the help of a modern software-based workforce management system that contributes in optimizing the organization of in-house resources.

When robust hospital information systems and innovative user-friendly diagnostic tools are used it cuts down errors leading to faster and accurate diagnosis.    

2. GREATER TRANSPARENCY LEADS TO IMPROVED OUTCOMES

It is an established fact that quality of diagnosis, treatment decisions based on this diagnosis and the monitoring of the treatment can have a significant impact on the patient outcomes. However, it is very much important that the results are transparent if improved outcomes are expected. According to economist Michel Porter, the providers do not have an option but to improve value if they want to survive the challenges of lower payment rates and potential loss of market share.

Although the hospital managers are well aware of this situation, they are not aware of the suitable measurement methods. With the patient engagement software, a healthcare provider is solely dedicated to one patient and all his attention is focused on the patient. The discussion is more on a one-to-one basis with the patient entirely depending on the provider for his suggestions. The credibility of the healthcare provider is at stake and he is certainly handling more responsibility of taking care of the patient across the care continuum while serving a hospital environment and after the patient starts their recovery outside the hospital stay.

The approach is more practical and effective as no payment adjustments are expected. The transparency in communication ensures that patient is well aware of the condition and is prepared to face the health challenges, and is more accountable for their own responsibilities for a good recovery. This ultimately leads to a positive outcome for the healthcare providers as well as the patient is well aware of their recovery needs and responsibilities.

3. BETTER CONTINUITY CARE POST-DISCHARGE

Today’s healthcare organizations are highly sophisticated albeit fragmented, a collection of service providers. Until a decade ago, a patient’s case ended with a transfer to a specialist or another provider or discharge. However, follow-up was not considered an important step in the success of a treatment. The rising costs have made the payers more aware of the methods to optimize the use of available healthcare resources.

It is quite possible to improve patient outcomes as well as reduce the costs by embracing the overall patient journey and following patients using the latest value-based care health software. Even the law supports and favors healthcare organizations in the U.S. that foster communication, coordination, and follow-up with the specialists, rehabilitation centers, and general practitioners whom the patients visit after discharge.

The patients can easily communicate with their respective specialists and healthcare providers using the same platform without patients having to leave their homes, and healthcare providers keep a tab on a patient's health condition without incurring extra costs for the services offered by the hospitals.

With the leverage Lifecycle Health technology platform and patient navigation services, you can easily transform a healthcare provider's operations and patient care services into a streamlined, affordable, and effective patient experience. 

Reference: http://www.lifecyclehealth.com/blog/2018/2/9/3-reasons-why-value-based-care-options-improve-quality

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Know How Important Is Patient Care Tracking Solutions!!

Managing a healthcare facility with utmost precision is not an easy task. As a physician and business owner of a facility, you are aware that when resources are limited and the in-house staff is getting smaller and smaller, having patient tracking software and tools to maximize efficiency while providing an excellent patient engagement is the need of the hour.

Having technological solutions to track patient care can aid in every step, right from checking in new patients to managing their care with the correct treatments and medication. Streamlining your operations, with the help of patient care software result in better care for your patient’s.

What are the Key Benefits of a Patient Tracking system?

• Improved Patient Care - Manage procedures more effectively to lessen patient waiting times.

• Resource Management - Gain critical information into patient status to allocate resources productively.

• Productivity - Spend less time on administrative assignment and more on understanding patient care.

Staff deficiencies and working in double shifts is a common thing in a healthcare facility, where specialists and overburdened attendants must keep on providing responsive care to patients. Through patient monitoring solutions, healthcare providers can handle multiple duties without getting bogged down in a solitary location. Staff can remotely program patient procedures and can also be alerted to changes in the physical condition of a patient. By using Wi-Fi empowered cell phones particularly intended for healthcare services, such as telehealth solutions can enhance the speed and nature of restorative treatment, even when there is a shortage of in-house staff.

An appropriately coordinated patient tracking system offers fast, exact and secure information gathering to healthcare providers so they know the status of patient’s health all the time. A full-fledged patient engagement solution should incorporate the following points: 

• Services recording

• Asset usage and allocation

• Patient check-in and identification

• Care and medication administration

• Accessing patient history

• Vitals tracking

A patient's time of stay depends on effective patient tracking solutions and the arrangement of their healthcare plan. Do remember that the length of stay has a direct impact on capacity management and further on costs and revenue. 

The healthcare industry is quickly embracing the patient engagement tools such as the tracking system to have the capacity to precisely and quickly ensure they have the correct data. The  precise information that is easily available ensures a seamless patient-provider engagement while maximizing your facilities bottom line.

Complete and accurate information likewise also leads to precise medical billing at registration, as all the products and services have been noted down by the software when they were treated. It’s a known secret that every medical organization needs to be profitable. With an efficient patient tracking solution, facilities can reduce operational and overhead costs, while providing value based care. Empowering your staff with the correct technological tools enables them to accomplish more with less.

At Lifecycle Health, we are your patient tracking and administration experts. Our team can help you configure solutions no matter what your line of medical specialty you deal in. Lifecycle will provide a complete system that fits the specific needs of your application and your budget. With years of experience in delivering complex healthcare solutions means that you will get a comprehensive resolution and a trouble-free execution, guaranteed.
Go ahead, give us a call! Visit us at http://www.lifecyclehealth.com/

Reference link: 

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Growing Significance Of Value-Based Care Programs For The Purchasers

The healthcare industry in the United States widely differs from the other countries in finance distribution and other aspects. Other countries follow a universal insurance program that is administered publicly. However, in the US, a huge number of private and public insurance programs finances healthcare and these programs are administered by the purchasers.

Medicare and Medicaid are the primary group purchasers who invest in the public healthcare programs. Apart from that, purchasing cooperatives and employers of different organizations are the purchasers for the private healthcare programs. The last decade saw a rise in the number of public as well as private healthcare purchasers.

Purchasers Demanding Transparency

With the advancement in technology, things have become more streamlined and both these types of purchasers are demanding transparency. Instead of simply giving away the checks to the healthcare providers or the insurance companies, they now are eagerly looking into the entire process. The purchasers now want to measure, monitor and improve the healthcare quality they are receiving.

It means that they want to have a clear-cut idea about the type and quality of healthcare service they are paying for. The way of approach may be different varying from one purchaser to the other. However, collectively this approach has been termed as value-based purchasing (VBP).    

Health Care Quality Is The Major Criteria

Over the years value-based care purchasers have become more alert and are demanding a look into every billing footed by the insurance company or the healthcare institutions. One of the reasons is that the healthcare costs have grown rapidly in the last two decades which has even outpaced the economy growth worldwide.

Since this increase in the healthcare costs have come at a time when economic uncertainty is looming on the horizon, many employers are now forced to question whether their expenditures in the healthcare field are really worth. Moreover, recent evidence also suggest that despite paying the competitive pay for the healthcare services, the purchasers have been provided with poor quality service which also includes misuse of the money, medical errors, and waste.

Even though a lot of activity is underway when it comes to value-based healthcare, its impact on the healthcare costs and quality is yet to be established. Hence it is very much important for the purchasers to evaluate these activities and identify as well as establish and adopt tactics that are beneficial for them and avoid those that have been found to be of no use.

Defining Value-Based Purchasing

The definition can vary a bit depending upon the type of purchasers. However, broadly speaking you can refer to value-based purchasing as any practice that aims to improve or add value to the healthcare services. In this case, the value should be taken into account on the parameters of cost and quality both being equally important. 

In other words, the primary goal of value-based purchasing is to improve the healthcare quality provided to the patients and others who are receiving these services. 

Significance Of Adopting Value-Based Techniques As Healthcare Purchaser

By adopting value-based techniques the healthcare purchasers can expect to fulfill their several goals. These include:

1. IMPROVEMENT IN HEALTH STATUS

One of the primary reasons to focus on value-based techniques is to improve quality. And the implementation of this feature can lead to changes in the health status of the communities as well as individuals.  It is important to be realistic while evaluating the impact of VBP activities on the status of health and also to recognize other factors that can make an impact on the outcomes.

2. GREATER SATISFACTION

Implementation of VBP activities leads to greater satisfaction both for the purchaser as well as the patient/ community. Although it is many times difficult to assess one main reason for the improvement in satisfaction level, more often, it has got to do with quality.

3. REDUCTION IN EXPENDITURE

One of the primary goals of these activities is to cut down the cost of healthcare service. From measuring the premiums to the payments made to the providers, the purchasers focus on every aspect of the payment that goes through them for paying the healthcare services offered to the patients. They can also plan to save on this expenditure by initiating few regular checkup programs.

For example, starting an asthma care unit can cut down the emergency trips to the hospital thereby reducing the expenditure.  Another example, patient monitoring after the primary procedure or condition diagnosis outside the clinic environment, can help in knowing if the patient really needs all of the services along their recovery path. There many additional ways that move from a mindset of “reactive” to “proactive” healthcare monitoring and services.

4. ENCOURAGING HIGH-QUALITY PLAN SELECTION

Another indirect object of the VBP activities is to motivate and encourage the selection of high-quality health plans and providers that includes nursing homes, medical groups, and hospitals. The theory behind this is that if the individuals are able to choose high-quality healthcare programs and providers they are at an advantage of experiencing major improvements in their health status.

5. APPROPRIATE USE OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES

Purchasers also aim to reduce inappropriate utilization of healthcare services through the VBP activities such as antibiotic prescriptions for viral infections or unnecessary Caesarean Section. On the other hand, appropriate utilization of healthcare facilities such as preventive care screenings like mammograms and carrying out recommended immunizations can be encouraged.

Reduction In Medical Errors

Lately, major healthcare purchasers are keenly looking into issues concerning the patients and their safety. More often, their VBP programs are targeted at reducing the medical errors through better patient engagement and cutting down omission errors such as wrong diagnosis, or failure to diagnose a particular health condition needing immediate treatment or errors of the commission such as wrong surgical procedures or overdose of a medication.

Naturally, reduction in medical errors is bound to improve the quality of the healthcare service and reduce its overall cost as well.  

Value-Based Health Care Models

As of now a lot of healthcare organizations such as Geisinger Health System, Cleveland Clinic, and Kaiser Permanente are trying out a variety of value-based models and are ready to take a financial risk so that spending can be controlled in a major way. The Deloitte Center for Health Solutions has already come up with several models like:

• Shared Savings
• Bundles
• Shared Risk
• Global Capitation

These models can surely help the purchasers and the healthcare systems to move ahead in the direction of paying for value. 

Using Telehealth To Improve Value-Based Service

Video visits are helping the providers largely to provide personalized care for the patients. That is why there is a growing demand for telehealth as it not only cuts down the cost but also improves the patient engagements-both the factors that are at the core of any value-based program.

Telehealth has a broad meaning and includes various activities such as mobile apps, email consults, activity-tracking wristbands, and clinician-patient video visits. The 2015 American Well Telemedicine Consumer Survey has revealed that 64 percent Americans are more willing to have a video visit with their caregiver rather than going to his clinic and wasting time in commuting.   

Using Digital Health Patient Management platforms to Automate and Enable Monitoring of Patients

Digital Patient Management platforms, such as Lifecycle Health and others, help in solving one of the toughest problems that an accountable provider has:  How do I monitor, track and engage my patients after the visit, procedure, or in other words “leave the clinic or hospital”?  This problem is not financially feasible to manually tackle through additional nurses, patient navigators, and coordinators — it adds to the cost of care, which is the opposite direction the provider needs to go.

Utilizing a sophisticated platform to automate routine physician “rounds” for recovering patients or monitor key data points for congestive heart failure patients, orthopedic hip and knee replacement patients, spinal procedures, and any other key patient procedure is critical to reducing costs, but more importantly feasibly being able to monitor and engage the patient outside the provider location.

Behavioral health patients for alcohol, drug and opiate conditions can also be engaged and nurtured along their recovery paths. Monitoring and helping not only the patient, but also engage the circle of caregivers supporting that individual along their recovery.

With the patient care continuum improving largely due to value-based service and digital enhancements in medical technology, purchasers are certainly keen to adopt these new changes and make such VBP activities a major part of their healthcare programs.

If you are looking for any such telehealth video or patient management platform to help your organization more efficient and effective then, Lifecycle Health is the one you can trust. Not only does it is great at arranging quick and effective patient video visits, but it can be effectively used with other providers to monitor patients along the continuum.

Importantly, Lifecycle health also allows you to do a lot of other after-visit activities such as monitoring patients, follow-up visits, communicating and messaging the patients efficiently in a secure way, and much more. 

Engagement, monitoring, telehealth video and telehealth messages — Both web and mobile — all available on one single platform! To know more about this highly sophisticated value-based healthcare platform please visit: http://www.lifecyclehealth.com/. 

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What drives Patient Satisfaction? Improve quality of Patient-Provider Communication

A total care arrangement is the developing need of great importance as patients are looking towards speedier recuperation and better treatment. The fundamental necessity of a patient is to accomplish successful outcomes with bring down spending. A patient strategizes his treatment arrangement as per this brilliant run the show. With a specific end goal to grow the patient care limit and lessen post-visit perceivability of any patient, a ton of choices have developed as of late. A patient care software with incorporation of tweaked plans is an ideal answer for this flourishing medicinal services advertise, taking into account a great many individuals.

A feasible patient engagement programming includes the convalescing of patient through specialized aptitude. It is a blend of methodological procedures, alongside an incorporated patient entryway that executes strategy at each phase of treatment. Normal studies are led to extemporize the attainability of therapeutics. Patient engagement software is an amalgamation of learning, data innovation and inspiration. This motorization of doctoring is the current achievement in the medicinal restraining infrastructure. To the extent the telehealth request of business is concerned, customary practices of going to a specialist are decreasing at a quick rate.

Another imperative perspective under medicinal supervision is provider engagement software. The need of an expert update is better coordination and doling out guardians finish opportunity with the goal that patients can get fulfilled by their necessities. It involves a date-book of video visits, a stage to share pictures, and a safe informing office with mechanized supplier alarms. An online wordy work process of the care attempted outcomes from consistent patient observing by means of portable applications. The correct blend of patient correspondence innovation alongside a straightforward UI identifies with a flawless telehealth application which goes about as a model of computerized treatment.

The execution of human services changes over the globe has brought out many changes in the way patients experience their mending procedure. Hospitalization has dependably been considered as a costly treatment instrument. In any case, as of late, life sciences alongside biomedical headway in innovation have met up as an inseparable unit to give patients an efficient and a practical method for curing their disarranges. The two-path correspondence between the patient and the supplier is guaranteed by programming according to the prerequisite of the gatherings. The medicinal procedure completes on an application over the Internet which goes about as a self-recovery office for the patient.

Related: https://lifecyclehealthblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/13/improving-patient-engagement-and-patient-satisfaction-with-enhanced-patient-provider-communication/

Quiet care programming drives the customary finding techniques in an exceptionally helpful and methodical way. Everything identified with patients is on the dashboard of occasions, by means of a chain of advanced relationship instruments. It includes sharing of best practices in the business which have just provided food administrations to an assortment of patients with various prerequisites. The product represents considerable authority in expanding income and diminishing expenses with most extreme slant towards the bliss of patients.

Also Watch: Lifecycle Health App - Patient Provider Communication

Lifecycle Health is a main medicinal services supplier with regards to dealing with patients as per their restorative needs. It expels the multifaceted nature of going to various suppliers and gives an across the board arrangement concentrating on quiet fulfillment. It includes a cloud-based application which can be gotten to from any gadget anyplace, and gives continuous data of the patient conditions. It is concentrated towards advance status, treatment studies and customary following of subsequent meet-ups to give productive outcomes. As the world anticipates accomplish excellent wellbeing benchmarks in coming years, Lifecycle Health adds to this reason in the most ideal way by taking its clients on an adventure of advancement. For more data visit: http://www.lifecyclehealth.com/

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How to Lower Costs with Coordinated Patient Care

Value based care has always been at the forefront of the healthcare industry with every need of the patient properly evaluated and taken care of. With the increase in such reforms, quality has been the priority rather than the quantity of treatment. Patient satisfaction requires a chain of therapeutics with premium supervision techniques to enhance the well-being of a patient. There are numerous Accountable Care Organizations providing supreme value based healthcare to their beneficiaries. Such systems allow the patient to follow a certain schedule of events at the right time to fasten up the healing process. The basic goal of this strategy is to make patients spend less money to achieve better health.

A diversified change has been observed in the healthcare industry with people involving themselves in episode-based payment. A perfectly outlined regimen focuses on improved efficiency and increased patient engagement. It leads the patient to realize the potential of care transition. A major switch to a better care delivery model is going to yield better results and quick recovery.  To go with the statistics, value based care models have superimposed some of the oldest technologies which were still in practice. A conversion from fee-for-service to pay-for-value is being witnessed all over the world.  The time in filling out medical history paperwork is reduced as doctors and hospitals are connected via digital modes of communication. An electronic health record keeps the patient data safe and easily accessible as well. 

The overall healthcare spending of the society is strategically decreased with the betterment of health policies at minimal expenditure. Suppliers coordinate valuing with patient outcomes. Payers look forward to the best programs that can reduce risks as well as control the expenses. Telehealth catalogs are one of the most efficient solutions in this prospect. Because of the information sharing facility, patients have to undergo fewer repeated medical tests. This aspect of financial viability is the principal outcome which stands out than any other treatment scenario. The providers do not face the problem of any financial risk which might arrive with capitated payment systems. The quality performance benchmark is the measure of the services received, patient satisfaction and cost efficiency of any organization.

The patient provider communication network is increasing widely with the latest scientific know-how which connects patients and providers at the touch of a button. Health insurance companies along with primary care hospitals aligned with incentive policies are ensuring constant patient engagement till its maximum limit. The patient experience is prioritized in a series of tests as well as schedules to maintain a sense of recovery in patients. The independence with offered accountability is impressive as small and local practitioners can now acquire the core capabilities and a new payment model. The sustainability of healthcare programs has been possible due to the transformation in medical industry standards which have raised the expectations of patients.

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The continuum of care program benefits the patient as it covers the delivery of healthcare over a certain interval of time. The value of telehealth care corresponds to the amount of treatment undergone per dollar spent. This major shift in the health industry rewards physicians for coordinating care and providing cure to each situation which might arise in the patient’s duration of treatment. The switching between caregivers or care institutions is done accordingly for maintaining the medical records in safe hands. The patient care software, as well as the provider engagement software, helps the organization to boost up the treatment cycle quickly.  The main goal of the healthcare industry has shifted to keep the population healthy, not on how many tests have been prescribed.

When thinking broadly, value based care definitely stands out as a remarkable breakthrough in the medical space. The increased monopoly in the healthcare business is due to a chain of clinically integrated networks and telehealth remains at top of this game. The scope is wide for a change to take place and value-based care reforms are revolutionizing the way in treating people to feel healthy. For a better society, health should be taken as the greatest possession.

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