Understanding value in oral health: the oral health value-based care symposium.

OBJECTIVE: There are both opportunities and challenges with the implementation of oral health value-based care (OHVBC). To tackle concerns and advance conversation, a symposium was convened with subject matter experts to develop a gap analysis and capture insights into professional readiness for value-based care design. METHODS: The symposium was convened as a private event for 46 participants over the course of one and a half days in December 2019. Thematic analyses utilized the OHVBC Readiness Framework (DentaQuest Partnership, 2019) to further codify conversations as part of the gap-analysis process. Poll Everywhere, a text messaging application that allows participants to answer questions in real time, was also employed to solicit responses. RESULTS: Attendees of the symposium felt that OHVBC would have a large portion of market share within the next 10 years. A qualitative assessment of multiple table discussions determined that the participants developed more consensus around themes for the current state and the future-desired state than the action-planning needed to close the gap between the two. This may relate to individual ideology, and the siloed environment is still prevalent in the oral health realm. In a postsymposium survey, respondent attendees did not perceive that COVID-19 would delay or negatively impact the adoption of OHVBC and may result in accelerating its utilization. CONCLUSION: The oral health community is experiencing multiple drivers to adopt more OHVBC within business and care models. However, there is still a lack of uniformity on how to execute this delivery model.