Using Value-Based Payment to Support Health Equity Starts at Model Design
November 4, 2022
Although value-based payment (VBP) models offer the opportunity to advance health equity goals, doing so requires an intentional, carefully considered approach. Health equity must be centered in payment model design, according to newly published Health Affairs article in a recent series on VBPs. Patient attribution methods are critical but often overlooked.
According to the authors, “For context, about 75 percent of Medicare beneficiaries self-identify as non-Hispanic White race, yet 87 percent of beneficiaries attributed to the most recent year of the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP, the largest VBP program in the country) were non-Hispanic White race. This indicates lower representation of Hispanic ethnicity, and of non-Hispanic Black, Asian, Native America, and Other race populations (source: authors’ analysis of public data). As CMS notes in a recent analysis of VBP models for implicit bias, some VBP models are associated with treating fewer historically marginalized populations and fewer dually eligible people (a marker of lower socioeconomic status). Changes to attribution could help mitigate these discrepancies.”
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(Source: Health Affairs, November 4th, 2022)
