A survey report from the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) gives a sense of the proliferation of value-based contracts in multiple practice types, as well as the increase in the number of medical groups tying some element of quality performance metrics to physician compensation plans.
MGMA consists of 15,000 group medical practices ranging from small, private medical practices to large national health systems, representing more than 350,000 physicians.
The survey report, based on 2021 data from more than 2,300 organizations, found that revenue from value-based contracts accounted for varying amounts of total medical revenue in 2021 among reporting practices:
• 6.74 percent in primary care specialties
• 5.54 percent in surgical specialties
• 14.74 percent in nonsurgical specialties.
Across all practices, MGMA said, the median revenue amount from value-based contracts was $30,922 per FTE provider.
MGMA polling earlier in 2022 found that the adoption of quality performance metrics in value-based contracts also is being reflected in updated physician compensation plans, as 42 percent of medical groups tie some element of quality performance metrics to physician compensation plans.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, previous MGMA Stat polls on this topic showed a very slow growth in the inclusion of quality metrics in compensation plans About one in four (26 percent) medical groups tied quality performance to physician compensation in 2016. By July 2018, the share of groups with quality tied to compensation rose to 36 percent.
A March 2019 poll — the last such poll MGMA Stat conducted on this topic prior to the pandemic — found that 38 percent of groups had tied quality performance to physician compensation.
Respondents to the latest poll tell MGMA that the share of physician compensation tied to quality performance has changed during the pandemic:
• 35 percent report they have increased the share of compensation tied to quality in the past two years.
• 62 percent of medical groups have the same share of compensation tied to quality versus 2019 levels.
• Only 2 percent of respondents said they decreased the percentage of compensation tied to quality.
Deploying Analytics
A June 7, 2022, MGMA Stat poll asked medical groups how they handle quality and value-based analytics. Forty-five percent reported they use both in-house analysts and vendors/software to get the job done, while 40 percent said they only use in-house analysts and 15 percent noted they only use vendors or third-party software.
The organization noted that a 2022 MGMA conference panel brought together several practice leaders to discuss their work in healthcare data. Among those who participated, many suggested that they have looked to move beyond pre-built reports within their practice management systems or EHRs to tools such as Power BI to pair with their existing reporting done in Microsoft Excel.
The report touches on several other key topics, including patient no-shows, revenue cycle management, and patient portal usage. According to the survey, overall usage of patient portals improved in 2021, with a 17 percent increase in patient logins compared to 2020. The top functions of patient portal usage that experienced an increase in utilization from 2020 to 2021 include:
• Paying bills through patient portal (29 percent increase)
• Communicating with providers and medical staff (40 percent increase)
• Filling a new prescription (59 percent increase).
