Transitioning to value-based care

Executive Summary

One of the biggest priorities for governments around the world today is how to deliver effective, efficient healthcare for citizens and residents. As populations grow and rapidly age, the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) rises, and the rising cost of care provision far exceeds the rate of GDP growth. 

Value-based care (VBC) models address both challenges simultaneously by promoting a more holistic and outcome-based approach to healthcare. They consider the overall impact of entire care pathways on patients, while aligning the incentives of healthcare providers and payers through sustainable, predictable treatment costs. 

While relatively new to GCC countries, VBC is more established in North America and parts of Europe, where it is having a positive impact on improving patient outcomes and the patient experience while curbing the growth in healthcare costs.  

This paper discusses the principle and premise of VBC, its potential for ensuring sustainable, affordable healthcare, the significant developments and challenges encountered so far as VBC initiatives are rolled out, critical success factors - including the availability of high-quality data and recommended actions for GCC leaders and key stakeholders in their respective care systems. These include developing standardised metrics and reporting mechanisms for clinician-reported outcome measures (CROMs) and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), encouraging and driving system interoperability and robust data sharing, alignment of financial incentives and models, and provision of timely technical and financial support to patients, payers and providers.