Making the Business Case for Value-Based Dementia Care

Authors
Robert John Sawyer, Ashley LaRoche, Sakshi Sharma, and Carolina Pereira-Osorio
Peer-Reviewed Article
February 2023

Headline

Opportunities for identifying the financial value of dementia care to support a positive return on investment.

Context

While the number of people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRDs) is growing rapidly, there is poor access to comprehensive dementia care programs for these patients. The costs of care are high – the costs for Medicare enrollees with dementia are three times higher than for those without dementia – and most dementia care programs lack sufficient funding. This article details the landscape of dementia care models and examines how to demonstrate the value of implementing these programs.   

Findings

The article outlines how to align a dementia care program to an individual health system, and how to identify the sources of financial value that will be attributed to that program. It includes a case study and cost outcomes based on financial metrics from the Ochsner Center for Brain Health Implementation of the Care Ecosystem dementia care program, and breaks down the sources of financial value including estimated cost savings, risk score improvement, and total provider payments received.

Takeaways

Health care systems can identify sources for financial value to sustain clinically important dementia care programs for patients and their caregivers. Given the fast growth of ADRDs and the limited access of dementia care programs, health system leaders can apply the framework and analysis in this article to develop a proposed dementia care model and identify financial metrics for sustainability.

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