A look into the future of medical schools presents students the unique opportunity to start caring more about the well-being of the patient and shift focus away from lawsuits and a price tag.
The “Value-Based Care” programs, as they’ve been called, give students the opportunity to learn medicine based on the needs of the modern patient, i.e. how medical insurance is changing and the most common ailments based on population health. The outcome involves paying doctors more on the quality of their care and the outcome.
The main issue seems to be that most doctors while having the knowledge and skill to help people lack the ability to apply that knowledge to the complex nature of modern health systems.
To name a few examples, Aetna, Anthem, UnitedHealth Group, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers are changing their payments models to reflect the values of payment based on quality and outcome for the sake of the patient.
This means the future of physicians will be met with an intricate system of metrics and measurements to ensure they are capable of meeting the new standards.
The coming changes won’t be swift or leave physicians blindsided either. That’s why it’s so important to start implementing programs that teach Value-Based Care because even the most experienced doctors will struggle to keep up when the time comes.
That’s why educators are starting to implement these programs early on, with basic information and a guided structure.
Now, more than 100 accredited AMA schools applying for the grants that give money to schools that want to start implementing this structure and teaching the core principles in their classroom. This figure is surprising, given there are only 150 accredited medical schools in the country.
The grant would fund entire courses and graduate level medical programs as well.