News: Value-based care leads to lower ED visits and hospitalizations, study shows

Emergency department visits and hospitalizations of Medicare Advantage (MA) beneficiaries can be reduced by value-based care, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open.

MA beneficiaries treated in advanced value-based care models were 5.6% less likely to experience hospitalizations and 13.4% less likely to need emergency room visits compared to patients treated in a fee-for-service model, the study states.

The study notes that value-based payment arrangements “were associated with lower rates of acute care use, especially those events that are potentially avoidable.” Additionally, the study had its limitations because “given the retrospective design, there is potential for residual confounding…it is [also] likely there is some selection bias around which primary care organizations engage in value-based payment models.”

Editor’s note: The JAMA Network Open published study can be found here. Additional ACDIS coverage of value-based care models can be found here.