The cost of waiting: Five ways delay adds up in value-based care

Most health systems are already analyzing the health of their populations. The challenge is not whether that data exists. It is how long it takes to turn a change in patient risk into action.

For many organizations, especially accountable care organizations (ACOs) accountable for quality and financial performance under their contracts, the stakes are both financial and human. Funding may depend on performance, but so does the health of the communities they serve. No organization can improve that health effectively without surfacing quality, utilization, and care-gap risk early enough to intervene. Here are five ways that delay can add up:

1. Care gaps surface with less time to close them

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) quality programs reward timely screenings, chronic disease management, and follow-up care. When a gap only surfaces in a monthly or quarterly report, the time available to identify the patient, coordinate outreach, and complete the intervention before the performance period ends may already be shrinking.

2. High-risk patients are identified after risk has already escalated

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) estimates the average 30-day hospital readmission costs about $16,300 US. Consider a scenario: A patient identified today can be contacted by a care manager, have their medication adherence reviewed, and receive coordinated follow-up care. If that same patient is not identified until weeks later, they may have already visited the emergency department or returned to the hospital. The value of insight is not simply knowing who is at risk. It is knowing early enough to act.

3. Rising risk becomes more expensive to manage

A 2024 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analysis of Medicare beneficiaries found that diabetes complications cost more than $37 billion US in a single year, with costs increasing substantially as complications progress. Kidney disease can cost thousands of dollars annually to manage, while the cost of kidney failure can exceed $54,000 US per year. The financial impact is clear: The longer risk goes unidentified, the more expensive it becomes to manage.

4. Delayed action narrows the opportunity to improve outcomes

A 2025 JAMA Network Open study of more than 311,000 patients found that delayed hypertension diagnosis was associated with lower treatment rates and higher cardiovascular risk. Patients whose diagnosis was delayed by more than a year after they met hypertension criteria experienced a 29% higher risk of heart attack, heart failure hospitalization, or ischemic stroke compared with those diagnosed earlier. While insight alone does not improve outcomes, earlier visibility can create a larger window for intervention.

5. Performance becomes visible after recovery time has been lost

For organizations participating in value-based care, quality performance and total cost of care are more than operational metrics—they have direct financial implications. When declining performance becomes visible late in the reporting cycle, organizations have less time to influence the measures that drive shared savings and quality incentives. By the time the problem appears in a retrospective report, part of the opportunity to improve both patient and financial outcomes may already have passed.

The real cost of waiting

It is not the report. It is the delay between knowing and acting. For most organizations, that distance is longer than they realize. Earlier insight does not create additional resources, but it can give care teams more time to prioritize outreach, focus on the highest-risk patients, and intervene before the window of opportunity narrows. As healthcare organizations evaluate their population health strategies, it is worth considering how much time exists between the emergence of risk and the ability to act on it.

Learn how MultiCare built the data foundation needed to turn population health insights into action.