February 01, 2024

Driving Value in Health Care Around the Globe

The goal of this three-part guide is to inform multinational employers about ways to use value-based approaches and outcome-driven strategies in their global health benefit strategy.

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Questions for Employers to Consider While Infusing Value into A Global Benefits Strategy

When multinational employers consider the role value-based care could play in their global benefits strategy, understanding what’s available in a given market and how it intersects with any employer-sponsored coverage is helpful. Here are some key questions to consider:

• 1 | What Is the existing health care infrastructure in each major location, and how can you leverage or enhance it to drive employees to high-value health care services? Certain health care initiatives may be impacted by varying regulatory or legal considerations. For example, in some countries with influential labor unions or work councils, employers may need to partner with them to implement any health initiatives. Other countries may have stricter limitations regarding private employers’ ability to influence employees’ health decisions.
• 2 | How can you facilitate communication and coordination among point solution providers to drive efficiency and outcomes? Many point solutions provide care directly to employees, often virtually. Further, employers operating in multiple countries may have a mix of country-specific, regional and global providers, complicating coordination. Holding point solutions mutually accountable for coordinating and integrating communications and data where it is possible and legal can drive efficiency and improve the employee experience.
• 3 | How can you ensure a consistent standard of care globally while allowing for adaptations to local health care practices and regulations? There are specific health care requirements and/or regulations in each country that may need to be considered. Employers will need to consult with local brokers, captive managers and vendor partners to ensure that benefit offerings are culturally relevant while also keeping an eye toward consistency across countries to the extent possible.
• 4 | How can you effectively engage employees in value-based care programs? Employers must think critically when developing initiatives to engage employee populations as this may look different depending on the region/country/market or cultural expectations. Additionally, it is important to consider how differing communication strategies/styles can be utilized to educate employees about the benefits and availability of value-based care services.
• 5 | What key performance indicators will be used to measure the success of strategies being used to drive value in health care? As employers work with vendor partners, they have an opportunity to advocate for the need for measurements and patient-centered outcomes. Employers may put pressure on partners to collaborate with external organizations to move the market in the direction of value-based care and better patient outcomes. Moreover, consider how often your strategy will be evaluated and what mechanisms are in place to foster continuous improvement. For any of the strategic aims listed in section 2 of this document, understanding how to measure value in health care is vital to identifying whether an approach has been effective.
• 6 | How will you comply with local health care regulations and legal requirements? Employers must consider any potential legal challenges (e.g., tax implications) or barriers (e.g., data privacy laws) that need to be addressed to connect employees to high-quality and valued care providers.

While the general concept of value is straightforward, without an effective ability to measure its elements, the term isn’t particularly meaningful. With the aim of helping solve this problem and driving implementation of value-based care strategies around the world, the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) was founded in 2012. ICHOM publishes standardized sets of outcomes data for a vast array of clinical conditions, covering as much of the disease burden as possible to better measure results and the outcomes that matter most to patients. ICHOM has harmonized many of these datasets, using common terminology to facilitate implementation internationally.

Though measurement initiatives such as ICHOM are furthering adoption of value-based care pathways for health systems all around the world, there are challenges that can hinder effective measurement, jeopardizing widespread adoption of value-based care and purchasing methods. Ultimately, this problem can impact employers’ ability to identify and connect employees to high-quality providers.

Some of these barriers include:

• Administrative burdens (e.g., managing global inventories or vendor relationships);
• Differences in health care infrastructures/level of development; and
• Diverse cultural norms/expectations.

There are varying ways to measure quality, outcomes and patient experience. What metrics an employer chooses to prioritize will depend on what they value and/or their workforce needs, as well as what data is available. Transparency of health outcomes data also remains a huge challenge even though patient outcomes data registries are being incrementally developed, and there is increasing availability of some EHRs around the world. While there are challenges and data will likely be imperfect, getting started is the most important element in this process.

Quick Tips: How to Strategically Utilize Measurements 

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Articles & Guides Global Benefits Management Value-Based Care