Over the past year, health care leaders have been operating in an environment defined by acceleration. Regulatory scrutiny is intensifying, value-based care is no longer experimental and expectations around accuracy, compliance and patient experience continue to rise. Against that backdrop, one strategic shift is becoming increasingly clear: the industry must move left.
“Shifting left” is more than a catchy phrase. It reflects a reorientation in how organizations approach risk, quality and value-based care, moving toward earlier, proactive and integrated action at point-of-care.
From retrospective chart reviews to prospective point-of-care solutions
Historically, many risk and quality programs were built to look backward either due to lack of technology or lack of knowledge on risk adjustment. Retrospective chart reviews, post-encounter reconciliation and after-the-fact audits became the norm. While these approaches filled gaps, they also introduced cost, complexity and compliance risk, often long after the clinical moment had passed.
Today, that model is under strain. Health plans face rising pressure to help support coding accuracy and documentation integrity, while providers balance growing administrative burden with the realities of frontline care. The answer isn’t more downstream review. It’s earlier insight.
Prospective and point-of-care enablement helps organizations surface clinically relevant information before or during the visit, including suspected risk conditions, quality gaps, prior utilization and missing documentation. When the right data arrives at the right time, clinicians can act with confidence, supporting patients and reducing downstream rework.
Aligning risk and quality at the point of care
One of the most important changes underway is the convergence of risk and quality workflows. Too often, these programs have been managed in parallel, with separate teams, tools and objectives. In practice, they are deeply connected.
Accurate documentation supports both appropriate risk adjustment and quality performance. Preventive engagement helps improve outcomes and reduces total cost of care. When risk and quality insights are aligned and presented together, organizations unlock far greater impact than when they operate in silos.
This alignment is especially critical as value-based models mature. Shared savings, risk-based contracts and hybrid arrangements depend on early identification, early engagement and consistent follow-through. Retrospective reconciliation alone cannot support that level of accountability. Prospectively integrated workflows can.
Value-based care is operational, not aspirational
Value-based care is no longer a pilot or aspiration. It is operational reality. What’s changing now is how organizations enable success within these models.
For providers, success depends on actionable data and workflows that fit day-to-day practice. Completing annual care visits earlier in the year, strengthening preventive engagement and capturing chronic conditions early are emerging indicators of program health, not just for performance but for patient outcomes.
For payers, the role has evolved from administrator to collaborator. Data sharing, performance transparency and ongoing engagement with providers are increasingly central to supporting value-based arrangements, particularly for organizations still building internal capabilities.
In both cases, the common thread is timing. Earlier insight leads to earlier intervention and better results.
Compliance as a year-round discipline
At the same time, regulatory scrutiny continues to intensify. Compliance is no longer a seasonal activity; it is a year-round discipline woven into program design.
Shifting left supports compliance by helping to improve specificity and accuracy at the source. Validating conditions earlier, guiding appropriate documentation and reducing reliance on retrospective chart retrieval all help lower exposure while supporting sustainable operations.
But this shift also brings operational challenges. The sheer volume of data, claims and encounters means organizations must find ways to scale insight without scaling burden.
AI as an enabler—with governance
This is where analytics and AI are beginning to play a meaningful role. AI is moving beyond experimentation and into production workflows, supporting data curation, surfacing suspected conditions and helping manage coding volume with human oversight.
Done well, AI can reduce operational lift, improve timeliness and enhance consistency. But trust is essential and accuracy must come first. Clinicians will disengage if tools introduce noise, extra clicks or questionable insights. Transparency, auditability and human-in-the-loop controls are not optional. They are foundational.
Technology should never exist for its own sake. Every data element, alert, or recommendation must serve a clear clinical or operational purpose.
The path forward
As the health care system continues to evolve, the direction is clear. Integrate the data. Shift left. Align risk and quality. Measure what matters. Use AI thoughtfully, with strong governance and respect for clinical workflows.
Organizations that embrace these principles will be better positioned to navigate regulatory change, support clinicians and deliver better outcomes, not by doing more after the fact but by acting earlier, together.
Optum supports organizations across the risk and quality continuum—from prospective, point-of-care enablement to retrospective review—helping strengthen documentation integrity and build sustainable, compliant programs. We’ll work with you to understand your goals and tailor an approach that fits your organization. Learn more at optum.com/risk.
About the author
Arati Swadi serves as VP of risk adjustment for Optum and has over 15 years of experience building health care products. She specializes in risk adjustment and quality and previously worked at Inovalon, WebMD, and Advantmed. She holds an MBA from Purdue University and an engineering degree from Gogte Institute of Technology in India.