The ‘One-Size-Fits-All’ Solution in Practice Management is Outdated. 1 Exec Has Found the New Answer

This article originally appeared in Becker’s Spine Review on June 2, 2022.

Peter Slate serves as chief business development officer at Healthcare Outcomes Performance Co.

Mr. Slate will serve on the panels “Direct-to-Employer Contracting 101: Strategies to Ink Valuable Deals” and “How to Make the Most Out of an ASC Transaction” at Becker’s 19th Annual Spine, Orthopedic & Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference. As part of an ongoing series, Becker’s is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place in Chicago from June 16-18.

Question: What issues are you spending most of your time on today?

Peter Slate: Over the past 24 months, HOPCo has expanded its musculoskeletal practice management and value-based care platforms into Nevada, Pennsylvania and Florida. We have also developed and gone live with new statewide value-based care programs in Arizona and Florida. This rapid growth has presented a number of unique opportunities to develop creative partnerships with medical groups, health systems, health plans and self-insured employers in all of these regions. Continuing to build these partnerships and ensuring that all partnerships are integrated properly and that all stakeholders are properly aligned has been a significant focus of the HOPCo corporate development and integrations teams.

Q: What are your top challenges and how will they change over the next 12 months?

PS: Given the nascency of today’s value-based care market for specialty care, we believe it is critical to be flexible in structuring “at-risk” programs to meet the needs of our partners. A payer’s or other at-risk entity’s ability to manage spending through value-based care programs varies based on their IT systems, infrastructure and other constraints. A “one-size-fits-all” solution is not workable. This presents challenges as well as opportunities. As a result, HOPCo has purposefully built medical economics and program management capabilities so that we can be flexible on program structure. This has enabled us to develop several value-based care programs, including bundled payments, professional fee capitation, shared savings arrangements and full sub-capitation of the musculoskeletal spend on a per-member, per-month basis (i.e., population health). As the value-based care market continues to expand, with new market entrants and payer adoption of more value-based arrangements, we anticipate our investment in systems, technology, and infrastructure and our need for flexibility to continue to increase.

Q: How are you thinking about investments and growth in the next two years?

PS: HOPCo connects musculoskeletal care stakeholders (e.g., providers, health systems, and payers) to improve patient care quality while decreasing the cost of care. By doing this, we have achieved significant savings in our value-based care programs. Over the last several years, we have grown to manage over 650 musculoskeletal care providers and have partnerships with practices, health systems and health plans in 31 states. HOPCo has made significant investments in medical economics capabilities and care management infrastructure to create HOPCo platforms in multiple markets. We expect this investment to continue. More specifically, we are investing in IT infrastructure and software to automate our proprietary systems for care management and patient engagement. While many of these investments are internal to further developing our existing analytics platform, we are actively seeking acquisition targets that can accelerate our growth across the value-based care landscape.