Docs leery of sharing risk with payers in value-based reimbursement
This lack of trust called "a huge hurdle' for insurance companies
Physician distrust of payers is a significant impediment to creating value-based reimbursement programs, according to a new survey from global business advisory firm FTI Consulting.
In fact, 41 percent of physicians who do not participate in a value-based relationship point to distrust of payers as the major reason.
"This lack of trust will be a huge hurdle for payers to overcome as they often cite provider buy-in and engagement as critical to the success of any value-based arrangement," Phil Polakoff, M.D., senior managing director and chief medical executive of the health solutions practice at the firm, said in an announcement.
Eighty percent of payers in the survey say contracts in which payers and physicians share in the savings they achieve for the Medicare program are "very important" to their strategic objectives.
Meanwhile, 92 percent of physicians say they are either "somewhat important" or "very important" to them. Almost half (49 percent) of physicians are interested in upside risk-sharing models. They're eager to reap the rewards of improving quality and controlling costs, but are less confident about sharing risk when it comes to missed targets that could lead to penalties, according to an article on the survey at FTI Journal.
