Dr. Verena Voelter, Founder & Managing Director at 5P Health Care Solutions, joined me to discuss collaborative value-based healthcare models, the role of digital transformation in enabling new forms of patient-centric and value-generating partnerships, how (and why) to acquire digital literacy, plus much more!
Here is a sneak peek of our conversation:
Q: You speak a lot around the idea of doing things like commitments, fostering communication, and sharing interests. Tell us a little bit about these core tenants of what should be part of the playbook for collaboration.
A: I think it is that last word that you said, it’s the interest. Another word for interest, because it sounds a little too technical almost, it’s like the needs or also the pressures that people are under. If we look at the 5 Ps, let’s say a pharmaceutical company is negotiating with a payer and insurance, or a doctor or provider is negotiating with their local lawmaker or policymaker, or a patient with their insurance; it’s always about “Do we actually understand what each other’s needs are and 9 out of 10 times, we don’t.
What we do is that we fall back into positions and we defend our position and that is linked to our fee-for-service system which is very transactional. It’s like, “I do that surgery for you and you pay me for it or a third party pays for it and that’s our deal.” It’s very short-sighted, it’s transactional. The interest-based playbook of seven steps entails or opens new doors because you can discuss around additional options of solutions that we find that you cannot find if you insist on your position and your opinion, for example. We’re all very opinionated and that’s the culture in the western world we were brought up in. It’s really breaking into new territory.
One comment I want to make that you alluded to at the beginning of your question is how can we carve out time for teams to come up with that co-creation mode. Because it takes time to figure out what are your interests, what are the pressures you are under, what common ground can we find so both your interests and my interests have met, that takes time. In the current fee-for-service pressure to produce environment, it is impossible to do so and that’s why many people reject and say, “Well, this whole value-based healthcare stuff anyway doesn’t work. It doesn’t work in my environment because I need to produce, produce, and produce.
Basically, the examples I’m citing in my book are all examples where you have both a top-down framework where the decision-makers – be it the head of the hospital, be it the head of the insurance, be it the local political leader in healthcare – joins a grassroots and bottom-up culture. This is where the needle moves in healthcare and this is where all the projects have that in common.
You need the leadership that sets the tone on culture and behavior and carving out that time and say, “You, my employees, I give you a day a month and I expect you to brainstorm and think about what you can do differently.” Then, it takes the bottom up. Everybody thinks about, “Well, in my role of responsibility, what is it I would love to do and who else can I call up tomorrow to discuss this?” This is how all these projects have started.
For more of our discussion, you can watch the whole Fireside Chat with Dr. Verena Voelter, or listen to the podcast version, below.
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About Impetus Digital
Impetus Digital is the spark behind sustained healthcare stakeholder communication, collaboration, education, and insight synthesis. Our best-in-class technology and professional services ensure that life science organizations around the world can easily and cost-effectively grow and prosper—from brand or idea discovery to development, commercialization, execution, and beyond—in collaboration with colleagues, customers, healthcare providers, payers, and patients.