The Case For Patient-Centered Assessment Of Value

Regardless of the outcome of the current health reform debate, patients are likely to continue to be asked to take more responsibility for their health care, whether through high-deductible health plans, health savings accounts, or other mechanisms. From a pragmatic perspective, it is time to shift the discussion toward helping patients understand what value actually means in choosing their health care and discharging their financial responsibilities. Any plan that is enacted, whether a full replacement of the Affordable Care Act or “fine-tuning” of the law, will likely require that patients make decisions about what constitutes value. At least two things need to happen to help people meet this challenge. First, we need to begin actively incorporating the patient perspective into the measures we use to assess value in health care. As we define value—and much work remains to be done in that area—we must be sure that value assessments adopt the patient perspective. Assessments must be salient to the decisions that patients make in choosing and using health care. Individuals with chronic or preexisting conditions, for example, will have different priorities than healthy young people whose focus may be on preventive or primary care. Second, as we develop better data on value, we have to communicate these findings to the people making decisions in ways that facilitate value-based, shared decision making between patients and providers. Incorporating The Patient Pers...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Costs and Spending Drugs and Medical Innovation Payment Policy Population Health Quality 2nd Panel on Cost-Effectiveness in Health and Medicine patient perspective patient-centered care patient-centric approach value assessment Source Type: blogs