By Adam Turteltaub

With value-based care growing, what role does compliance play?  To find out we spoke with Carolyn Barton, Vice President, West Regional Compliance Officer at Kaiser Permanente.

She explains that at Kaiser they define value-based care as a healthcare delivery and financing model that improves health outcome and increases access to affordable care in the community through evidence-based care, a commitment to equity and simplicity and aligned incentives. Doctors and health plans, she reports, work in an integrated system focused on the patient and delivering the right care at the right time and place.

To make that work their electronic health record (EHR) system is the foundation not just for collecting patient data but also for sharing protocols for treating patients. By implementing systematic, evidence-based approaches through these protocols, they help mitigate racial and ethnic inequities.

The results she shares are impressive. Kaiser patients are 20% less likely to die prematurely from cancer compared with others in their community, and they are 33% less likely to have a premature death from heart disease.

The compliance team plays a key role by helping, for example, physicians identify the scope of their practice risk such as ensuring that, as patients are moved to a lower level of care, there is proper staffing in place to treat them.

To ensure your compliance team succeeds in the values-based care world, she recommends being agile, supporting the organization’s efforts at risk mitigation, building trust, making yourself accessible when there are questions, and thinking creatively.

Listen in to learn more about how your compliance team can thrive in this environment, and also what mistakes to avoid.

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