Value Proposition in Cancer Care: Quantifying Patient-Centered Value in a Comprehensive Cancer Care Center

A combination of poor population health outcomes and skyrocketing health care costs in the United States has propelled the concept of value-based care into collective American consciousness. Once only a conceptual framework, value-based care is now a driving factor behind policy changes to payment reform, patient care standards, hospital staffing models, and other aspects of health care. However, change does not always equate to improvement, and improvement does not always equate to value. To optimize the elements of value-based care effectively, value must be purposefully defined, accurately measured, meaningfully reported, and thoughtfully discussed. Ultimately, only when all of the components of the value equation can be transparently articulated within the doctor-patient interaction, the patient will have the ability to participate in shared decision-making. In this chapter, we describe a framework for patient-centered value quantification that facilitates shared decision-making and goal-concordant care.