Dr Roy Beveridge: Value-Based Care Means Better Reimbursement for Physicians

Physicians have shown great interest in understanding how to transition into value-based processes, especially with the new rules under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), said Roy Beveridge, MD, chief medical officer of Humana. While these transitions take time and effort, they eventually lead to physicians being reimbursed more for longer visit times and improved outcomes.

Transcript (slightly modified)

How does Humana work with physicians who might be inexperienced or unfamiliar with value-based models?

With MACRA, what we’ve seen is great interest in understanding how, particularly for Medicare patients, people move into these value relationships, these value processes. We’ve been doing this for 30 years, and it’s not a fast process. It’s a process that requires a retooling of the practice, a reengagement with patients, and a commitment on the payer to support the physician group.

An example would be that the average time in a fee-for-service encounter with a patient is about 11 to 15 minutes. In a value relationship, it’s about 30 to 40 minutes, and the patient is seen much more frequently. The physician is also reimbursed better, because they’re spending more time with the end result for the patient being improved health, decreased hospitalization, improved medication adherence, more cancer screenings. That’s the value of value-based care.