From Volume to Value

For years, healthcare was built on a fee-for-service model. Providers were paid based on the number of services they delivered—appointments, procedures, tests—not whether those services led to better health. This volume-driven system did not incentivize preventative health or coordination of care. Fragmented services became the norm. Cost continued to rise while health outcomes stagnated. Doing more services did not make patients healthier. But it did drive up the cost of healthcare.

Redefining What Counts

In response, a new model emerged: pay-for-value. Instead of rewarding quantity, value-based care rewards providers for having healthier patients. This means better prevention and coordination of care, which results in fewer emergency visits, better chronic disease management, and easier access to supportive services. It's a powerful shift that reorients healthcare around integrated whole-person care.

Sharing Risk

Under value-based care, the financial incentives align with patient outcomes. Healthy patients create value payments. Hospitals are rewarded for making clinical care more accessible and effective for all patients. However, if patient outcomes do not improve, payment is negatively impacted. And because outcomes are so heavily influenced by social needs—like housing, food, transportation, and safety—health systems now have a stake in addressing challenges they once considered “outside” of healthcare.

The Cost of Unmet Social Needs

In 2024, the average cost of care among patients that identified at least one social need was 47% higher than the clients who reported no social need. Among patients that identified at least one social need, we saw statistically significant increases to average outcomes within the following metrics:

Length of stay
Number of inpatient stays
Emergency Department visits

Health Starts in Community

This is more than a policy change—it’s a paradigm shift. Clinical care alone accounts for just 20% of a person's overall health. The most powerful drivers of health are the socioeconomic factors that affect our lives. Social drivers are the conditions in the environments where we are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age. These factors account for almost half of overall health and are powerful predictors of how healthy we will be regardless of clinical services. To improve outcomes, healthcare must expand its reach beyond hospital walls and into communities.*

* Source: Hood CM, Gennuso KP, Swain GR, Catlin BB. County Health Rankings: Relationships Between Determinant Factors and Health Outcomes. Am J Prev Med. 2016 Feb;50(2):129-35. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2015.08.024. Epub 2015 Oct 31. PMID: 26526164.

Expanding the Edges of Healthcare

To succeed in the pay-for-value model, healthcare systems must reimagine the margins of their work. The boundaries of care need to stretch—strategically and structurally—into the social systems that shape health. This isn’t just a challenge; it’s an opportunity to redefine how value-based payments are used to drive meaningful change.

Bridging the Gap with Jackson Care Hub

That’s where the Jackson Care Hub comes in. We work at the intersection of clinical care and community support—bridging the gap between what’s happening in clinics and what’s needed in neighborhoods.

Our secure platform enables cross-sector coordination, closed-loop referrals, and shared data that makes invisible needs visible—so that no one falls through the cracks.

By supporting this next phase of healthcare transformation, we help our clinical partners meet the demands of value-based care. The Jackson Care Hub ensures that today's patients can access the social resources they need. We also facilitate strategic action to develop the community infrastructure that drives positive health outcomes. Hospitals will succeed when communities flourish!

We Move Healthcare Towards Health.