Payment Reform Needed: The Policy & Practice Podcast

The Institute of Medicine released a new report last week calling the U.S. health care system overly complex, inefficient, and wasteful. But there’s hope for a turn­around, it said, because of advances in computer technology and in the science of organizational management.

There won’t be improvement, howev­er, without a change in financial incen­tives for physicians and other providers, according to the IOM panel. It recom­mended that payers move away from the current system of paying for volume of services and instead reimburse physi­cians based on quality improvement, outcomes, and value.

^{Image Courtesy Sean Locke/istockphoto.com}

The September issue of Health Affairs delves into the details of some of the payment reform proposals currently be­ing tested, including accountable care or­ganizations, bundled payments, and oth­er value-based payment models. At a briefing in Washington, D.C., experts agreed that the key to success with these models will be giving physicians flexibil­ity to tailor them to their own practices.

For more on that, and a rundown on the Democratic and Republican party platforms on health care, listen to this week’s Policy & Practice Podcast.

–Mary Ellen Schneider