Value-Based Care Consulting Firms Receive Top Marks from Providers

January 10, 2020 - Value-based consulting firms are worth the money, according to provider organizations participating in a recent KLAS survey.

In the report Value-Based Consulting 2019, KLAS analyzed nine consulting firms helping provider organizations implement value-based care. The firms included Deloitte, Lumeris, Navigant, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Optum, Premier, Chartis Group, Health Catalyst, and Milliman.

KLAS reported that all consulting firms analyzed performed well, receiving above an 85 out of 100 points. The firms were also recommended by their clients.

Provider organizations are satisfied with the outcomes they are seeing from engaging with value-based care consulting firms, the report added.

“Provider organizations commonly describe VBC consulting firms as expensive, but most also say they get good value for their dollars,” KLAS wrote in the report. “While most firms have proven they can help clients better manage risk, transformational partner firms (most notably PwC and Navigant) tend to deliver the broadest set of outcomes. Milliman clients say they pay a premium but describe the firm as highly accurate and helpful.”

Premier and Optum also “stand out for delivering tangible outcomes,” with clients praising both firms “for providing strong, reliable data and helping clients uncover actionable opportunities for improvement.”

Additionally, KLAS said, “Lumeris has demonstrated the ability to help advisory clients achieve a broad set of outcomes.” Although, clients who did not choose to implement the firm’s managed services offerings reported lower value and fewer tangible outcomes.

Some of the most tangible outcomes realized by provider organizations engaging with value-based care consulting firms included improved ability to manage risk, higher care quality, and lower healthcare costs. Provider organizations also reported better clinical outcomes and improved patient satisfaction. However, clients of Deloitte and Chartis Group did not realize those two benefits and clients of Health Catalyst did not see improved patient satisfaction.

Value-based care consulting firms help providers organizations improve in key areas because of their expertise, responsiveness, and communication skills, respondents to the KLAS survey agreed.

In terms of engagement executive and quality of staff, Milliman and Navigant earned top spots, with clients praising Milliman’s staff expertise and organizations commending Navigant consultants for their professionalism, strong project management skills, and ability to meet deadlines.

Optum, Premier, Lumeris, Health Catalyst, and PwC were not far behind the two consulting firms, with clients rating both engagement execution and quality of staff highly. Deloitte and Chartis Group scored well on quality of staff metrics, but there was not enough data to determine engagement execution scores.

Provider organizations are increasingly turning to consulting firms to assist with their transition to value-based care. Value-based care is not a strong skill for many healthcare executives. Only 13 percent of hospital CFOs in a recent Kaufman Hall survey said they are prepared for evolving payment and care delivery models with their current financial planning and processing tools.

Consulting firms are stepping in to help provider organizations, especially those on the smaller side. Results from a 2018 Black Book survey of 877 physician groups, practices and organizations showed that more than two-thirds of group practices with ten or more physicians (68 percent) turned to consultants for guidance on financial and clinical transformation of their practices. Specifically, the vast majority of independent physicians and practices (89 percent) sought expertise in both managing population health and revenue cycle.

But before provider organizations decide to engage with a consulting firm to assist with value-based car implementation, leaders should consider the different scopes of engagement, KLAS stated in its latest report on value-based consulting.

The market research company found that value-based care consulting firms fall into three general categories:

• Transformational partners, which lead some of the most complex value-based care transformation projects and partner with highly complex clients to have broad organizational impact
• Problem solvers, which tend to be ad hoc in nature or focused on solving specific challenges of moderate complexity for client that anticipate project scope to go beyond the delivery of strategies or recommendations to include the implementation of specific initiatives
• Credible sources of information, which tackle lower complexity projects with clients who have yet to assume risk or are in the earlier stages of risk adoption

Deloitte, Lumeris, Navigant, and PwC were prime examples of transformational partners, while Optum and Premier were problem solvers and Chartis Group, Health Catalyst, and Milliman were credible sources of information, KLAS reported.

Using these categories, providers can identify the right type of value-based care consulting firm for their organization.