Abstract
Introduction:
Many regions across Europe are starting to develop and implement value-based care models.
Value is defined as patient/person care and experience outcomes relative to the health and care system cost to deliver those outcomes. Value-based procurement therefore, goes hand in hand with value-based care as it makes purchasing decisions that take into consideration how a product, solution or service can best deliver the outcomes and experience of care being measured and reduce the total cost of care – rather than focusing exclusively on purchasing a specific product, solution or service at the lowest possible price. The EU funded Euriphi co-ordinating and support action is focusing on introducing innovative solutions to support the delivery of Europe’s health and care systems through cross-border value-based procurement.
Policy context and objective: Integrated care is an ongoing EU regions policy response which aims to address inter-related financial, organisational and person-centredness issues in order to provide sustainable health, social care and support services.
Highlights and transferability:
The objectives of the integrated care arm of the Euriphi project is to gain insights and organise the demand side around a small set of (3-4) procurement objectives (ICPOs) to address identified integrated care service delivery shortcomings and to assist Euriphi partners in the related adaptation of the Most Economical Assessment Tender (MEAT) value-based procurement framework (VBF).
The integrated care work commenced with a desk-top research exercise to identify integrated care delivery shortcomings for 5 conditions - stroke, COPD, multimorbidity, dementia and aortic stenosis. Thirty-six ICPOs were included in a survey to elicit procurement priorities and feedback from the Euriphi PPOs. Analysis of survey responses resulted in 13 ICPOs going through to a survey widely distributed to other European regions and PPOs, the results of which produced a short-list of 6 ICPOs for consideration by the Euriphi PPOs and Advisory Board members. This activity resulted in consolidating the 6 ICPOs into a final list of 3 which went forward to an Open Market Consultation to determine whether there were innovative solutions available to address the care delivery shortcomings identified.
Alongside this work, project partners have adapted the VBF in order for the approach, language, categories and criteria to reflect the value-based procurement of integrated care solutions.
The next stage of the project will apply the adapted VBF to the highest-rated innovative solutions presented in the OMC with Euriphi partners. Consequently, this activity will support the identification whether the adaptations to the framework are appropriate or if further revisions are required for the real application of the framework and the findings will be available for presenting at the end of April 2020.
Conclusions:
The ICPOs and associated care delivery shortcomings identified for the 5 conditions were not dissimilar and this resulted in the final 3 ICPOs being described generically with specific examples of applicability for each condition. This maximised the opportunity to identify innovative solutions with broad integrated care reach rather than condition specific and potentially providing a stronger business case for PPO investment.