Physician Payment: Forget Carrots And Sticks, It’s Motivation

Today the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute, Inc. issued a report, developed with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), questioning conventional wisdom about how to improve the quality and affordability of U.S. health care.

The report, entitled “Improving Incentives to Free Motivation,” rejects the premise of current payment reform discussions, which assumes that health care costs will drop and quality will improve if policymakers and payers simply find the right mix of rewards (“carrots”) and punishments (“sticks”).

The Issue Brief also analyzed cost and quality variability data for over 20 health conditions, identifying those (such as diabetes and coronary heart disease) most ripe for incentive experimentation and reform.

Additional details can be found in today's news release. Blog posts on the topic were also published today in  the Health Affairs Blog and The Health Care Blog.

Should Physician Pay be Tied to Peformance?

We need to rethink how we pay doctors. That's one thing almost everyone can agree on.

 

The question is, how?

 

In today's Wall Street Journal, Francois de Brantes, executive director of the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute, weighs in on incentives. "Should Physician Pay Be Tied to Performance?"

New transparency report card; states must step up to help consumers gain access to health care prices

Consumers have information readily available on the quality and prices of restaurants, cars and household appliances, but not for health care options. While we’ve made some progress, shockingly little information still exists about health care prices, even for the most basic services. Several studies have shown that the price for an identical procedure can vary as much as 700% with no difference in quality, and with health care comprising 18% of the U.S. economy and costs rising daily, it’s troubling that most prices are still a mystery.

The Catalyst for Payment Reform (CPR) and the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute (HCI3) have been pushing health plans and providers to share price information more freely and are seeing progress. But public policy—or even just pending legislation—can provide a powerful motivator as well.

Today CPR and HCI3 have released a new Report Card on State Price Transparency Laws. The report shows that most states are not doing their part to help consumers be informed and empowered to shop for higher value care. The report find that 72 percent of states failed, receiving a “D” or an “F,” and only two receive an “A.”