We spend 18 percent of our national gross domestic product on health care. As health care spending continues to grow and as we appropriately drive the health care system toward a payment system that rewards value instead of volume, it is imperative that we promote conversations on how to define value. To do this, it is critical that we first answer the question: value to whom?
Value in health care can mean different things to different stakeholders. Payer priorities may not match up with manufacturer concerns, and both may assess value entirely differently than public health entities. However, no matter which of these stakeholders is measuring value, it’s important that value assessments always robustly consider and measure what matters most to the ultimate consumers of health care: patients.
The patient perspective on value is of particular importance now, as patients are responsible for more and more of the costs of their care. Today, more than 1 in 4 Americans report facing challenges paying for their medical bills and about 79 percent of cancer patients report moderate to catastrophic financial burden related to their care. Low-income families often spend more than 20 percent of their after-tax income on out-of-pocket health care spending, even when enrolled in low- or no-deductible plans.