Value-based payment models are on the rise, but the way isn’tclear for speedy adoption among family physician practices.

That’s according to a follow-up study on physician acceptance of value-based paymentfrom the American Academy of Family Physicians and Humana Inc. Thestudy finds that while 54 percent of family physicians indicatetheir practices participate in value-based payment models and halfbelieve value-based payment models will encourage greatercollaboration between primary care physicians and specialists,there are still issues that must be resolved before broaderacceptance occurs.

Value-based payment models are gaining acceptance, the studyfinds, as reflected in IT, care coordination and other investments.Family physicians are acknowledging a connection between qualityand payment, with 37 percent of value-based payments distributedwithin a family physician’s practice based on achieving qualityand/or outcome measures. That’s an increase from 18 percent, asreported in the original study in 2015.

Family physicians are also investing in care coordination aspart of their approach to value-based payment models, with 32percent of family physicians reporting that they provide ongoingcare management/coordination services to all high-risk patients.That’s up 23 percent from 2015’s results. In addition, 43 percentcite hiring/hired care management and care coordinators, up from2015’s 33 percent.

They’re also earmarking more practice resources for value-basedpayment, with more than half—54 percent—of family physicians in apractice that is updating or adding health IT infrastructure fordata management and analysis to participate in value-basedpayment.

But it’s not all going smoothly, with issues related toadministrative burden still rearing their heads and impedingprogress—the same issues that were identified in 2015. Respondentsreport such issues as a lack of staff time (reported by 90 percentof respondents), a lack of transparency between payors andproviders (reported by 78 percent), a lack of standardization ofperformance measures (78 percent) and no uniform insurance companyreports on performance (75 percent) as barriers to navigating andimplementing value-based payment models.

In addition, just 8 percent of family physicians agree with thestatement “quality expectations are easy to meet in VBP models.”That’s down from 13 percent in 2015.