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Patient-First Care
(a.k.a. Value-Based Care)

Since 2019, USofCare has conducted an extensive deep listening effort to fully understand people’s health care needs and desires. This work taught us that people want affordable, higher-quality care. They also want more time with their doctors, better communication between providers, more personalized and customized care, and to be treated as a whole person rather than a series of symptoms.

Most of the current health care system, incentivizes providers to prioritize the quantity of visits and treatments completed on a patient over the quality of those visits, known as fee-for-service. Patient-First Care, also known as “Value-Based Care,” prioritizes personalized, high-quality, coordinated health care, focusing on the needs of the individual person with the goal of enhancing both the experience and health outcomes for the patient.

USofCare is proud to share resources based on our listening work and research that put quality and people at the center of health care through patient-first care. 

To learn more about our work in patient-first care, click here.

Policy Principles:

USofCare encourages interested policymakers and stakeholders to apply these principles to policy proposals to assess whether proposed models and/or legislation live up to the promise of patient-first care.

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Fact Sheet
This fact sheet shows how our research findings inform our overall messaging on payment models that prioritize quality over quantity.


Shifting the Health Care Approach: Quality over Quantity
This is an in-depth look at the history behind USofCare’s work and the public opinion research that informs our work. Take a look at the topline takeaways, messaging strategy, terms to watch, and more.


Talking About Patient-First Care
Don’t know where to begin to talk about Patient-First Care? Check out our recommendations for how to talk about what it is and its impact on patients with policymakers, health care experts, and more.


Overview of Our Research
This quick 2-pager introduces why we started this research and why it is significant in the health care and health care policy landscape.


Moving Towards a Patient-First Care Payment Model

On March 6, 2024, United States of Care held What State Advocates Should Know: CMS’ New AHEAD Model, a webinar that highlighted considerations for states moving to patient-first care payment models, with a specific focus on the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation’s new States Advancing All-Payer Health Equity Approaches and Development (AHEAD) Model

Speakers from the CMS Innovation Center and Vermont’s Agency of Human Services joined United States of Care staff to provide state advocates with an overview of the AHEAD Model’s goals and components, dive into considerations and benefits for states interested in pursuing the model, and highlight opportunities for state advocates to encourage their states to prepare and apply.

Click here for the recording, slide deck, and one-pager.

Chief Program Officer Kristin Wikelius and Sr. Director of Research and Community Engagement, Dr. Venice Haynes, led a webinar on our patient-first care research findings.
Click here for the recording and transcript.