Reframing Value-Based Care Management: Beyond Cost Reduction and Toward Patient Centeredness

Care management programs are increasingly being utilized by health systems as a new foundational strategy to advance value-based care. These programs offer the promise of improving patient outcomes while decreasing health care utilization and costs. However, as these programs proliferate in number and specialization, the field of care management is increasingly at risk of fragmentation, inefficiency, and failure to meet the core needs of the patient.

This review of the current state of care management identifies several key challenges for the field, including an unclear value proposition, a focus on system- vs patient-centered outcomes, increased specialization by private and public entrants that produces care fragmentation, and lack of coordination among health and social service entities. A framework is proposed for reorienting care management to truly address the needs of patients through acknowledging the dynamic nature of patient care needs, providing a continuum of need-targeted programming, coordinating care among all involved entities and staff, and performing regular evaluations of outcomes that include patient-centered and health equity measures. Guidance on how this framework can be implemented within a health system and an outline of recommendations is provided for how policymakers may incentivize the development of high value and more equitable care management programs.

With increased focus on care management as a cornerstone of value-based care, value-based health leaders and policymakers can improve the effectiveness and value of care management programs, reduce patient financial burden for care management services, and promote stakeholder coordination.