As the health sector moves toward paying for outcomes, successful value-based care models must include the ""Three T's"": trust, transparency and transformation. 

Payers and providers must first develop a trusted relationship in which their values, mission, objectives and financial incentives align. Working together, they must codify and measure transparent objectives, performance and quality standards through required data sharing, interoperability and collaboration. Finally, by leveraging data to redesign care models that identify and avoid unnecessary or low-value care and by intervening early, health systems can transform their practices, enabling clinicians to provide services at the top of their licensure. 

Having successfully embraced the Three T's in the design and implementation of a shared-risk model, executives from UPMC Health Plan and the Alliance of Community Health Plans discuss these three crucial factors. 

Pittsburgh-based UPMC Health Plan’s Premier Partners value-based payment initiative program enables primary care practices to earn a share of the savings achieved or to carry both upside and downside financial risks. Practices in UPMC’s program show up to 18% higher quality performance across all measures, 12% higher incidence of depression screening and higher sustained levels of telehealth utilization. 

As the health sector faces increasing demands to provide affordable coverage and care that delivers high-quality outcomes, organizations embracing the Three T's are poised to succeed, advancing the necessary value transformation in health care.