Healthcare Triage News: Pay for Performance in Medicine: It Doesn’t Work
“Pay-for-performance” is an umbrella term for initiatives aimed at improving the quality, efficiency, and overall value of health care. These arrangements provide financial incentives to hospitals, physicians, and other health care providers to carry out such improvements and achieve optimal outcomes for patients.
Hospitals instead will receive a one-time payment of 0.6 percent next year to offset the 0.2 percent reduction implemented from 2014 through 2016.
The shrinkage of employee retirement resources in the U.S. has been well documented, as employers shift more risk onto their workers. Less so is the rate at which employers have been eliminating healthcare benefits for retirees. As the Kaiser Family Foundation recently reported, retiree health coverage is becoming an endangered species.
http://www.healthcaredive.com/news/performance-measures-put-heat-on-hospitals/418477/
This year has seen a bevy of new programs and initiatives aimed at moving providers toward a value-based model of care.
http://www.rwjf.org/en/library/research/2016/04/medicare-s-new-physician-payment-system.html
http://www.rwjf.org/content/dam/farm/reports/issue_briefs/2016/rwjf428568
Lowe’s home improvement company, like a growing number of large companies nationwide, offers its employees an eye-catching benefit: certain major surgeries at prestigious hospitals at no cost to the employee.
It is estimated that 1 out of 3 people can be expected to develop the disease in their lifetime. The majority of diabetes patients were found to experience at least one potentially avoidable complication, with a cost averaging $1,043 per year for patients with private insurance and $1,869 for those with Medicaid. The authors believe the results illustrate the value of using analytics on patient data, supporting the objectives of population health initiatives to identify opportunities for improving treatment while lowering cost.
HENRY KOTULA 