Living squarely in Eagles territory with the big game less than a week away, I've noticed several correlations between the journey to becoming a winning football team and the implementation of a winning value-based care strategy.  A successful transition to VBC requires time, deliberation, and dedication to improving quality outcomes.  Sharing a vision isn't enough. There must be a greater commitment by the whole team to do what is necessary to achieve greatness.  Nothing good ever comes easily, so the key to winning is to keep your eye on the prize.  Here are just a few pro-tips for paving your way to victory:

Invest in the Right Resources and Equipment

Acknowledge a Period of Rebuilding

Even the best team dynasties eventually need restructuring or additions to the roster. Sometimes you can make it with your current staff and technology. If you find yourself constantly falling flat of your value-based revenue goals however, it may be time to rebuild.

Developing Plays = Aligning Staff with Technology

With the right resources in place and being used consistently, the proper documentation will be captured every time even if the run routes and play options differ from patient to patient.

Analyze Your Playbook

Study What Has Worked for Organizations Similar to Yours

Reinventing the wheel is not necessary to be a pioneer in your field. Study what the greats with similar team structures have done and find places where you can discuss strategy with your peers.

Recruit Expertise as Needed

You don't have to conquer the league with only your in-house resources. Finding short-term experts to assist you with training and implementation could save you time and revenue. Try looking for consultants that have a good track record of helping organizations adopt to value-based healthcare or health information technology vendors with real-time customer support.

Practice Makes Perfect

Improve Process Efficiencies and Workflows

A good coach adeptly adjusts based on what happens in the game. Once you've developed what you hope will be your winning value-based care strategy, you can't just implement it and them move on to other things. Watch it closely for inefficiencies or fixable inconvenience that could save you valuable staffing hours.

Close Gaps in Performance

Identify under-performers and easy ways to fix measures with poor performance early on. It can be as simple as adding a line to a patient intake form, or as complicated as having to re-train your staff. Either way, closing gaps in care will pay off big in the long run both in revenue and quality of care.

Plan Ahead for Road Blocks

Adapt and don’t lose sight of the “Big Picture”

It's easy to get sucked into reporting to value-based initiatives like the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) simply to comply and avoid negative payment adjustments. It's even understandable - spending time to perform better than minimally could possibly interfere with the amount of quality time that is able to be spent with the patient. However, the industry is undeniably trending towards adopting other more sophisticated value-based care models. Understanding how to not only comply but excel at programs like MIPS now will help you down the road when opportunities arise to participate in more rewarding value-based payment models.

Flea Flickers Only Work Every Once in a While

You can't get away with calling a trick play on every play, and you can't get away with scraping by with doing the bare minimum. Adopting a value-based payment model can either pay off or become a money pit, so an investment in developing real clinical workflows to support serious value-based reporting will pay off in the long run.

Requirements/catch rules might change and the players may be different, but VBC will remain. The road to success can be as steep as the Rocky Steps, but championship-worthy teams adapt and persevere.  The best strategies must include preparation, flexibility to make changes along the way, and synchronized team execution.  Most importantly, sharing the mission to improve patient outcomes will give you that final winning edge over your competitors.