About a third of employers are incorporating value-based care into their employer-sponsored insurance, according to a new survey. Another third of employers determine the “most appropriate strategies for their organization” when it comes to responsible care.
The report was released Sunday by the Milken Institute with support from Morgan Health, an employer-sponsored health unit of JPMorgan Chase. The Milken Institute is a nonprofit think tank focused on financial, physical, mental and environmental health. The survey received responses from 72 employers of varying sizes and industries.
Researchers found that expanding preventative care, improving access to primary care and focusing on the health of the whole person are the three most important tenets of responsible care when making decisions about health benefits. The lowest-scoring principles are reducing inequalities in health outcomes and improving access to digital care.
While many employers hope to advance accountable care, respondents noted several barriers. These challenges include difficulties in establishing value-based arrangements and limitations in health system infrastructure. Employers also cited capacity, bandwidth issues, geographic limitations and cost as key barriers.
“These findings from employers highlight the need to explore opportunities, in collaboration with other stakeholders, to effectively advance accountable care and improve health outcomes,” the report said. “Through a holistic ecosystem approach, stakeholders can build a holistic health system infrastructure that promotes the establishment or expansion of accountable care arrangements.”
As part of the survey, respondents were also asked about their current service offerings. The most common services offered are maternal health, mental health, virtual primary care, and nursing or counseling services. The least commonly offered benefits are healthy eating benefits, fitness, advanced substance use disorder treatment, and caregiver support.
When asked what services they would like to improve in the next few years, 23% of respondents cited mental health resources. Another 20% said they would improve virtual primary care and caregiver resources.
Employers also said they take into account several important considerations when making health benefits decisions, including reducing overall costs, providing a broad network of providers and services, and ensuring health care is affordable for beneficiaries.
During a panel discussion Monday at the 2024 World Conference hosted by the Milken Institute, Morgan Health CEO Dan Mendelson shared what he expected and didn’t expect from the report’s findings.
“Some of the results are not that surprising,” he said. “Employers are really concerned about costs, they want to please their employees. You care about the full spectrum of the patient experience. … Then some of the results that I think were super important and were a little surprising. For example, we found that around half of employers are looking to increase the value of their insurance schemes. And that’s really important. You essentially have a group of motivated employers, and if we can pull together and really drive demand from employers who insure 180 million people in the United States, then I think there’s a lot of potential here.”
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