Speaking at the Health IT Summit in Raleigh, held September 27 and 28, and sponsored by Healthcare Informatics, Ben Lunsford, vice president, value-based strategies, at the Louisville-based Humana, offered attendees insights into the future of value-based healthcare and the trajectory of value in the current U.S. healthcare system.
Lunsford spoke on the topic “Humana’s Value-Based Strategy,” on Friday Sep. 28 at the Summit, which was held at the Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club, on the campus of Duke University, in Durham. As of 2014, according to the Wikipedia entry on the company, Humana had over 13 million customers in the U.S., and 41,146 employees as of 2018, and net income of $2.448 billion on revenues of $53.767 billion, in 2017.
Lunsford, who is based in Birmingham, Alabama, and has been at Humana for 14 years, focused on the company’s Medicare Advantage (Medicare managed care) business, which encompasses 3.5 million members; in addition, the health plan counts 1.5 million commercial group members and 9 million military members.
As Lunsford shared in his presentation, “Value-based care is different from the current fee-for-service (FFS) model of care, which simply pays for the number of services a patient receives. These services include physician and hospital visits, procedures and tests. While value-based care pays physicians for these services, it also includes more pay for meeting quality measures, coordinating care, preventing repetitive treatments, controlling overall costs and improving health outcomes.”
Lunsford proceeded to share with his audience the Primary care Value-Based Continuum model that Human has been executing, in its contracting with primary care physicians. It consists of four stages of development, with intensifying contracting features from one to the next. In order from least to most advanced, they are: the “Star Rewards” program, model practice program, medical home program, and full-value program.
In the Star Rewards program, primary care physicians have their outcomes evaluated using HEDIS-based quality metrics, with an annual payout benefit calculated in terms of a percentage of claims opportunity. In the model practice program, both HEDIS-based quality metrics, and clinical measures developed by Humana medical managers, are employed, and the rewards to primary care physicians involve a quarterly shared savings opportunity. The medical home model involves primary care physicians working in medical groups that have received some official form of recognition as patient-centered medical homes; those physicians are eligible for a PMP (per member per month) care coordination opportunity, with increased financial incentives. And finally, the full-value program involves monthly PMPM global capitation.
The Star Rewards Program this year has been using very well-known measures, such as breast cancer and colorectal screening rates, nephropathy screening rates and hemoglobin a1c control measures for diabetics, medication adherence rates for hypertensives, etc. PCPs are asked to meet six of nine NCQA (National Committee for Quality Assurance) HEDIS (Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set) measures; practices that achieve that goal receive a 12-percent bonus paid annually.
Meanwhile, incentives accelerate both in terms of amounts of money, and pay schedules, as PCPs move into more advanced programs. Those in the Model Practice Program who meet quality measure standards (which are more extensive and include a readmission rate measure) receive $8 PMPM quarterly. Then, as they advance to the Medical Home Program, PCPs can participate in shared savings with Humana. And of course, for the PCPs ready to advance to the most advanced model, full capitation, those physicians will be participating in a model that is continuous in payment differentials.
Humana is also developing bundled payments in specific areas of specialty care, beginning with total joint replacements.
Speaking of all these models, Lunsford told his audience, “The patient experience of healthcare can seem fragmented. It can be frustrating for the health consumers. Ultimately, care delivery needs to be integrated rather than episodic, and focused on coordinated care and overall population health. This transition from volume to value is critical in enabling the shift to this integrated healthcare model, which… will allow us to have a sustainable healthcare system.”
It is of course no accident that Lunsford put the main focus of his comments on primary care physicians, who, he said, have the most influence on the health outcomes of patients. “Outside of direct care,” which itself is a huge part of all of this, he noted that PCPs “have an amazing amount of influence on the integrated care model; they’re the ones deciding which specialists to send patients to; providing needed prescriptions; educating patients on wellness. They’re our quarterbacks of care.”
That said, he continued, “Meanwhile, likewise, the patient has an amazing amount of influence on their own care. They’re the decision-makers. They’re deciding to engage in wellness and disease management programs; they’re deciding to be with a payer or a provider, based on the care they get. It’s absolutely critical to making the integrated care model succeed. And lastly, as a health plan, we bring an amazing amount of resources to the table, including a considerable amount of data. With that data, our historical picture of a transactional relationship is changing. We’re developing data to help physicians; we provide care referral and insights to physicians; and we can provide health and disease management programs, and care delivery options for where patients want to receive care, which oftentimes, is in the home. So we all bring something to the model.”
Though most of his time was focused on primary care physicians, and secondly, on plan members/patients, Lunsford did share about Humana’s new program, initiated on January 1, focused on hospitals, its Hospital Incentive Program. As described in his presentation, “The Humana Hospital Incentive Program (HIP) provides hospitals with an opportunity to participate in a value-based program that recognizes hospitals’ continuous patient improvement efforts, via earned annual incentive.”
The program provides annual incentives for hospitals based on performance in the areas of patient experience, patient safety, and patient outcomes. Among the specific measures included are a hospital’s HCAPHS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare providers and Systems) scores; healthcare-associated infections; care coordination; palliative care; readmission rates, and average lengths of stay. The various measures are individually weighted, collectively totally 100 percent of the eligible incentive.
“We’re not only experiencing a seismic shift in the approach to integrated care, but also in the way we reimburse for it,” Lunsford told his audience, as he explained Humana’s value-based payment program. Meanwhile, he added, “Brand loyalty is another component of value. We make as consumers a choice around value in every purchase we make.”
Indeed, Lunsford said, “Humana’s primary care value-based continuum is truly the cornerstone” of the company’s strategy. And he noted, it is purposely “structured as a continuum: participants can move into the model. From Star rewards, to model practice, to medical home, to full value. As providers progress down that path. Each program builds upon the previous one. Star rewards just starts with quality; that continues forward into the other stages.” What’s more, he said, “This ability to enable and encourage, but not mandate, progression down that path to full value, is something that we find very valuable.”
Meanwhile, after explaining about the measures being used in the health plan’s programs, Lunsford said, “I often hear, why can’t payers get together and focus on the same set of measures? Wouldn’t that be a perfect world? I agree. But we seek guidance and counsel from many providers. And we also look at things like prevalence? Is a particular condition prevalent? We look at the PCP’s ability to impact the measure. And we look at things like our ability to measure. You’ll notice on the right that some of the measures are relatively binary. Did something occur or not? That is one factor. Also, the priority CMS places on us from the point of health plan scoring, influences us, too.”
Further, he said, “Let’s talk a little bit about how we set payment models. There’s a value placed on the achievement of certain measures. And it’s a delicate ballet between behavioral, actuary, and our clinical leaders, to determine what the best amount is that we can set. Second is the competitive element. If we pay you a dollar for something and Blue Cross or Aetna pays you five dollars, who will you focus on?”
Meanwhile, Lunsford noted of the model practice program, whose participating physicians are delivering care to 37 percent of Humana’s Medicare Advantage population, “Each measure has an incremental dollar amount assigned to it.” What’s more, he noted, elements such as ER utilization, readmission rate, and patient experience, that are being measured. Meanwhile, the measures used in the medical home program, the next step up, match those measured in the model practice program.
When it comes to medical specialists who contract with Humana under Medicare Advantage, they can participate in bundled payments around total joint replacement; and specialists participating in commercial insurance with Humana can participate in a maternity program.
As for the Hospital-Incentive Program that Humana launched in January, Lunsford noted, “We partnered with the Joint Commission on developing this model and a couple of its measures. It centers around the patient experience, patient safety, and patient outcomes, with, as mentioned above, six key measures: HCAHPS score; healthcare-associated infection; care coordination; palliative care; readmission rate; and average length of stay.
“We continually evaluate the care our members are receiving through value-based payment models,” Lunsford told his audience; and Humana executives plan to “aggressively” push value-based payments going forward. Meanwhile, he touted the fact that “Sixty-six percent of our Medicare Advantage members are now in some sort of value-based arrangement.”
Following his presentation, Lunsford spoke with Healthcare Informatics Editor-in-Chief Mark Hagland. Below are excerpts from that interview.
Can you say what percentage of all members are in value-based arrangements?
We don’t publish that number; but we can provide the number of members we have on the commercial side.
Understandably, much of your presentation focused on your arrangements with primary care physicians. Can you speak to your goals around contractual arrangements with hospitals?
The tie for us between a member or patient, the one responsible for care in value-based models, is the primary care physicians. To be sure, that PCP can be employed by or affiliated with a hospital or integrated health system, and we’ll still interact with that physician in the same way.
Can you speak to changes in the physician culture that are making physicians more amenable to entering into value-based contracting arrangements? Do you see progress accelerating?
Yes, I think so. Just by the sheer fact that we have 66 percent of our Medicare Advantage members in those value-based arrangements, shows that this concept of value-based is not going away; and it’s becoming more solid.
Are physicians more hip to what’s going on than a few years ago, in terms of the trajectory of the overall healthcare system?
Absolutely.
Can you speak to physicians’ preparedness to participate in measurement programs?
There is a wide array of capabilities in that space. And as a payer, we have to be able to meet those providers where they are in that capability space. Our Carebook team manages that digital interface.
Can you speak to physicians’ success, to date, in working with you in those measurement arrangements?
An early understanding of where their opportunity is, in terms of quality improvement—understanding where those gaps exist, and the tools that exist to address those gaps, early on as possible, is the most important element.
In what direction do you see your programs heading, over time?
We’d love to see an increase in participation, even at 66 percent now. We want all the groups in those programs to be successful. All three of us—the patient, the provider, and the health plan—all win, when they’re succeeding in these programs. So, growth, success, and I would say, expansion; so as we look at other value-based models, that’s a critical focus for these programs.
Can you say a few words about the hospital-based program?
Yes. This is our first program we have focused on improving quality delivered in the inpatient setting. Incentive arrangements are relatively new, and of course, new to Humana. Our number-one goal there aligns with the goals of our primary care programs, and that is being focused on hospitals succeeding in all the measures we’ve stablished in the program.
Can you say how many hospitals are participating so far?
We’ll release that number soon.
Is there anything you’d like to say to the healthcare IT leaders in our audience?
Recognizing the capabilities and influence that we all have in interacting together to help this model succeed, that’s crucial. The cooperation of everyone to help drive success, is critical.
