EP277: Is Now the Time When Value-based Payments Overcome a Fierce and Sticky Fee-for-Service Overlord? With Eric Weaver, Executive Director of the Accountable Care Learning Collaborative

In this Episode 277, Stacey Richter talks with Eric Weaver, DHA, MHA, executive director of the Accountable Care Learning Collaborative, about whether now is the time for value-based payments to finally overcome fee-for-service.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

✅ Why health systems with more revenue in value-based agreements weathered the pandemic's elective-procedure drop-off better

✅ Why cognitive services have historically been undervalued compared to procedural, volume-based care

✅ How the patient experience factors into the value-based care equation

✅ Why purchasers like employers and commercial carriers need to come to the table alongside providers and payers

✅ Why standardized quality measurement remains essential to making value-based care work

WHY THIS MATTERS

Eric Weaver argues the pandemic exposed a structural risk in fee-for-service: health systems whose revenue depended on elective-procedure volume watched that revenue evaporate overnight, while organizations with capitated, value-based contracts kept getting paid to actually take care of populations. That contrast, he says, is the strongest argument yet for accelerating the shift to value-based payment — not as an aspirational nice-to-have, but as a real hedge against the next disruption. Getting there requires providers, payers, and purchasers to all show up to the table together, since no single stakeholder can make the switch alone.

=== LINKS ===

🔗 Show Notes with all mentioned links: Episode Page

🔗 Healthcare Industry Acronyms and Terms

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00:00 Introduction.

03:23 Is this pandemic an inflection point for value-based care?

04:10 "If United Kingdom built their National Health System post-World War II, why can't we rebuild ours?"

04:40 "If it's ever gonna happen, it's gonna happen now. I just think we need to wake up."

05:04 Do volume decreases equal payment decreases?

06:10 Where value-based care plays into specialty care vs primary care.

06:21 "There just hasn't been a value on cognitive services as there has been on procedural volume-based care."

06:55 "I really think that independents have to be in the driver's seat here."

06:59 The possible silver lining in this pandemic.

08:07 Why it's mostly about economic incentive … with a couple of caveats.

12:21 More or less hospitals when this shakes out?

14:01 "There has to be some standard of measurement for quality, and we all know that."

17:00 Where the patient experience plays into the value-based care equation.

21:54 "We have to be thinking about the consumer and the patient."

22:25 Where employers land in this equation.

25:14 What happens to the value-based care measures that were in place and aren't anymore?

27:20 How carriers buying providers impacts value-based care.

29:54 "I really think we're … [looking at] a new normal."

30:49 "We have to go all in."