Celebrating 40 years ESHPM: Symposium 'Making Healthcare Sustainable'!

In this session we will focus on the proclaimed promise of Value-Based HealthCare (VBHC) to not only increase healthcare quality but also to contain costs. The focus on quality is seen in many discussions on VBHC, often highlighting the role of shared decision making, and in the implementation of VBHC initiatives in healthcare practice. Interestingly, healthcare costs and making costs transparent, let alone VBHC’s actual potential to save costs, seem to receive much less attention in these VBHC debates and practice initiatives. In this session we will discuss this lack of attention and possible underlying reasons, the complexity of using VBHC as a governance mechanism to reduce costs, and what this means for VBHC’s potential to live up to its promise of supporting financial sustainability. We will also discuss how cost-effectiveness (CEA) and VBHC can complement each other by informing decision making at different levels in the healthcare system. The session will be an interactive one combining insights from researchers from ESHPM and people working with VBHC in practice, including a clinician, a patient representative, an insurer and a policy maker.

Outline of the session:

• Four short introductions from ESHPM researchers:
  • Gijs Steinmann, MSc: the Dutch debate on VBHC; where are the costs?
  • Prof. Anne Stiggelbout: shared decision making; will the cost saving come from patients?
  • Dr Frank Eijkenaar: changing the financial incentives: from volume to value (including costs)  
  • Prof. Maureen Rutten-van Mölken: complementarity of CEA and VBHC  
• 5-minute pitches by external speakers, followed by interactive panel discussion, led by Hester van de Bovenkamp, with external speakers:
  • Prof. Diana Delnoij (National Healthcare Institute and ESHPM)
  • Dr Arthur Hayen (Menzis)
  • Prof. Angelique Weel-Koenders (Maasstad Hospital and ESHPM)
  • Daphne Voormolen, MSc (ESHPM)