07 May The Task Force Releases Advancing Health Equity within Value-Based Care
WASHINGTON (May 7, 2024) – The Health Care Transformation Task Force has developed a resource identifying principles to increase health equity within current and future value-based care (VBC) models. The Task Force is committed to promoting health equity in the United States and VBC offers a key opportunity to promote equity by influencing quality measurement and payment policies. The Task Force will use these principles to inform future advocacy on value-based care.
The Task Force assessed current federal policies related to health equity in VBC and identified four main opportunities for policymakers, payers, and providers to increase health equity through VBC:
- Care Delivery for Health-Related Social Needs: The Task Force strongly supports clinical care and wrap-around services that address health-related social needs (HRSNs). VBC arrangements should offer providers and payers support to screen for and address HRSNs, while also reducing patient financial barriers.
- Risk Adjustment for Clinical and Social Risk: VBC arrangements should use financial methodologies that do not penalize those caring for higher-risk patients, including both clinical and social risk. Quality measurement should identify gaps related to patient demographics and social risk data, and payment methodologies should provide bonuses for gap closure.
- Data Collection for Demographics & HRSN: CMS and other payers should invest in collecting and validating patient-reported data on demographics and HRSNs. CMS should align with organizations that are establishing coding and documentations standards for this data.
- Multi-Payer Alignment for Increased Consistency: CMS and other payers should align health equity policies across programs and plans, to support providers and improve the applicability of the data that is collected.