The demand for sophisticated actuarial and med econ analytics is rising, and Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) are responsible for developing solutions to handle these demands. While many companies would like to move to value-based contracting (VBC), there’s no shortage of challenges with the implementation, especially for a CTO. In this blog by Accorded Co-Founder and CTO Thomas Bedington, we explore the top 3 challenges for CTOs in VBC and how Accorded can help.

1. Lack of Actuarial Expertise

One big challenge for engineering and product teams operating in the VBC space is the lack of actuarial expertise. This gap in expertise isn't the fault of engineering teams; it reflects the interdisciplinary nature of VBC implementation. Actuarial expertise is critical for breaking down the complexities of healthcare financing under VBC models. Combined with cleansing and integrating data from legacy systems, engineering teams are in uncharted waters.

Subject matter expertise is critical when dealing with the problems that inevitably arise with integrating data from partners. How to validate inputs? How should you handle messy data? How do you infer necessary data when it is missing, or use an appropriate proxy? While financial analysis is likely not the engineering team’s direct responsibility, partners in finance and operations rely on the information provided by the engineering team’s data pipelines. As a result, the success of value-based contracts starts with the quality of the data.

Failure to execute these actuarial tasks correctly due to lack of expertise can result in severe consequences for the organization. This includes financial losses, reputational damage, legal issues, operational disruption, safety risks, and missed opportunities for growth and innovation. It's crucial to ensure that actuarial expertise is in place from the start and that resources are allocated effectively to minimize risks and maximize impact.

Solution: While hiring actuarial consultants or data reporting solutions is an option, Accorded Acumen stands out by marrying actuarial proficiency with cutting-edge data engineering. Acumen de-risks processes while ensuring accuracy through the incorporation and application of actuarial subject matter expertise. The platform doesn’t just simplify data integration; it enriches data with actuarial insights, enabling more informed decision-making. With Acumen, engineering teams can trust they’re building on a rigorous actuarial infrastructure. 

Related Reading —> The Power Couple of VBC: Actuarial Science + Modern Data Engineering

2. Resource Constraints

Another challenge for engineering teams is that they’re typically stretched thin. While adopting VBC is integral to future success, building the actuarial data infrastructure to support the strategy isn’t usually a core business function. This paradox leads to VBC work being deprioritized for engineering teams, further stretching already thin resources and complicating the management of diverse data pipelines.  

Solution: By leveraging Accorded, a CTO can increase the productivity of their engineering team by taking the actuarial infrastructure build off their plate. This external reinforcement allows engineering teams to focus on immediate product and operational priorities that drive the core business forward while executing a robust VBC strategy. 

3. Communication Across Teams

Building systems to support VBC requires a high level of coordination between teams. The need for transparency and seamless integration is critical but challenging to achieve when teams work off of siloed data workflows. 

These siloed data workflows can lead to major issues in data discrepancies and misalignment, with significant implications across the entire organization. Studies reveal that the average employee dedicates almost 40% of their work time to sorting through unclear communications and information requests. 

Solution: Accorded Acumen aligns teams with actuarial insights in one place to optimize efficiency. With access to reference claims across commercial and Medicare datasets, stakeholders can make decisions based on a shared understanding of comprehensive, actuarially enriched data. Every team can leverage Acumen's insights to drive their value-based care strategy. 

The Bottom Line

Accorded empowers you to accelerate your value-based care strategy by combining actuarial expertise and modern data engineering. Our platform gives you everything you need to execute a value-based care strategy.

Benefits

• Enter into value-based care contracts confidently with the right insights, at the right time
• Free engineering teams from building VBC analytics tools, allowing them to focus on core business products
• Increase the productivity and happiness of actuarial and analytics teams through automation
• Align teams with the latest actuarial insights, in one place, to optimize efficiency

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