Blueprint for VBC: Can small and independent groups thrive?

Independent and smaller physician groups face a tougher climb in value-based care (VBC), says Jason Jobes, senior vice president of Solutions at Norwood — but success is still possible with the right strategy.

“They can, but it’s tough,” Jobes says. “If a medical group is one to five docs, I don’t know that that makes sense for them. A lot of these clinicians enter into upside-only, incentive-based programs where they get, let’s say, $20 for every HCC that’s documented. That gets them something, but they’re not really capable of taking significant risk.”

Jobes notes that scale matters: groups typically need around 10,000 covered lives to generate meaningful synergies and shared savings potential. “Smaller organizations in Medicare Shared Savings Plans had a lower likelihood of success,” he says, “but there were still a lot that did achieve shared savings.”

For most small groups, he recommends partnerships with larger entities to reduce administrative burden while maintaining upside potential. “Approach a large entity and possibly combine — let somebody else handle the administrative work, while you share in the upsides,” Jobes says.