Dive Brief:
- The Partnership to Empower Physician-Led Care (PEPC) has coalesced to advocate for value-based care models and provide independent physician practices with support and tools they need to transition to such reimbursement methods.
- Founding members include Aledade, the American Academy of Family Physicians, California Medical Association, Florida Medical Association, Medical Group Management Association and Texas Medical Association/PracticeEdge.
- PEPC will be using regulatory and legislative levers to advance its agendas, Executive Director Kristen McGovern told Healthcare Dive.
Dive Insight:
PEPC will look to deliver on four priorities:
- Advancing physician-led alternative payment models.
- Ensuring an equitable policy framework that promotes choice and provider competition.
- Creating new opportunities for physicians in commercial markets such as Medicare Advantage.
- Supporting consumer-directed care.
McGovern said PEPC's first order of business will be looking for opportunities for independent physician practices in upcoming CMS payment rules and analyzing how much risk those practices will need to take on for their patients.
"We believe that we are unique in our mission to support not only independent physicians and physician-led groups, but particularly independent physicians moving to value based care," she said. "Over the past year, the value-based care movement has started to take off."
While value-based reimbursement models have produced some mixed results on quality of care, the industry is beginning to see how they're capable of reducing cost and lowering hospital re-admissions.
Accountable care organizations serving employer-sponsored plan beneficiaries outperformed non-ACOs on 87% of quality measures tracked in 2017, up from 83% the previous year, according to UnitedHealthcare's annual Value-Based Care Report.
Health plans’ use of value-based methods is certainly growing, having doubled from 12% to 24% since 2015, but still not as rapidly as anticipated. Some of the barriers preventing growth include a lack of resources, inconsistencies among payers and lack of physician alignment and support. Those are areas PEPC hope to tackle.
“Independent physicians in Texas are being increasingly squeezed by regulatory burdens and rapid provider consolidation,” Lou Goodman, CEO of TMA PracticeEdge, said in a statement. “We are pleased to join PEPC to help relieve this pressure so our physicians can get back to caring for their patients.”