Whose value is it anyway? Reconciling conflicting perceptions of patients and payers

Abstract

A promising pathway to achieving greater value in health care is to increase use of “high-value” services and decrease use of “low-value” services. Sometimes the value judgments of patients and payers are well-aligned, creating opportunities for policymakers to more forcefully influence use of services for which perceived value is concordant. More difficult situations arise when patients and payers have discordant value perceptions. We propose a novel framework for navigating situations where payers and patients agree or disagree on the relative value of services, and potential solutions for improving value under different conditions.