HealthAffairs Blog 4/22/2021

Criteria To Qualify As A Better Care Team

We propose that to qualify as a BCP available as part of the public option, a health plan will need to contract with Better Care Teams (BCTs) that provide care that is safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable, as defined by the National Academy of Medicine. The specific criteria for provider teams to qualify as BCTs include:

1. The team employs clinicians working with patients and their families to make care decisions together;
2. The team has the resources and capacity to provide or arrange for all needed care;
3. The team actively coordinates patients’ care across providers and sites;
4. The team assumes responsibility for health outcomes and the cost of care;
5. Every team member is allowed use their competencies and practice at the top of their license;
6. The team has access to point-of-care data on performance and has systems and training to continuously improve care;
7. The team assures that patients always have ready access to their claims and electronic health record data;
8. The team can identify high-risk patients requiring special care needs; and
9. The team has access to appropriate resources to address patients’ behavioral and social needs.

Each BCP would need to have a process for measuring whether all these criteria are met by each provider team with which the BCP has a contract.

READ MORE