Dr. Thomas Santo on pay-for-performance:
Clearly, the practice of medicine, perhaps better described as the delivery of healthcare, is undergoing a radical, permanent change, at least for the foreseeable future. After all, we are only a few weeks into the first year of ObamaCare, and already HHC, one of the largest hospital corporations in the country, has decided to hold their physician employees financially responsible for the mandatory changes outlined by CMS. The complexity of these changes makes their adoption into current practice a daunting task for many physicians.
The simple fact is, that the future of medicine looks very different than it did when many of today’s doctors started medical school, even for those who have graduated in recent years. For those who entered the field to treat patients, cure disease and make a real difference in the lives of others, the current tasks that consume much of their time and energy are carrying them further and further away from that goal. The optimists in the field would like to believe that pay-for-performance is simply a resetting of the status quo, which will take considerable time and effort, but ultimately benefit our profession and our patients in the long term.
I am hesitant to agree with this view for two reasons, among others. First, I believe that many physicians are already at or near capacity in terms of their ability to deliver care, both in terms of organizational resources, and personal time and energy. Many individual and small-group practices simply do not have the resources to understand and implement the constantly changing mandates from CMS. Therefore, when you hand them a forever evolving checklist of arbitrary measures that they must follow in order to be reimbursed properly, you only increase confusion and frustration, and do little to impact productivity or foster a system that delivers better care.
Secondly, for any physician who sees their reimbursement cut by providing “sub-optimal care”, as deemed by CMS, what is to stop them from refusing to serve their sickest, most chronically ill and frequently hospitalized patients? In so doing, they raise the “quality” of care they provide, and lower the cost at the same time (they will not be responsible for those sick patients when CMS evaluates them the next year). Such a reaction to pay-for-performance would only further accelerate a current trend in medicine, which is seeing many physicians refuse to accept new Medicare patients.
It is impossible to forecast how pay-for-performance will ultimately impact the quality of care we provide, and the cost at which we do so. But one thing is certain; the job of physicians providing that care becomes more difficult every day.
Read the full piece here.
Clearly, the practice of medicine, perhaps better described as the delivery of healthcare, is undergoing a radical, permanent change, at least for the foreseeable future. After all, we are only a few weeks into the first year of ObamaCare, and already HHC, one of the largest hospital corporations in the country, has decided to hold their physician employees financially responsible for the mandatory changes outlined by CMS. The complexity of these changes makes their adoption into current practice a daunting task for many physicians.
The simple fact is, that the future of medicine looks very different than it did when many of today’s doctors started medical school, even for those who have graduated in recent years. For those who entered the field to treat patients, cure disease and make a real difference in the lives of others, the current tasks that consume much of their time and energy are carrying them further and further away from that goal. The optimists in the field would like to believe that pay-for-performance is simply a resetting of the status quo, which will take considerable time and effort, but ultimately benefit our profession and our patients in the long term.
I am hesitant to agree with this view for two reasons, among others. First, I believe that many physicians are already at or near capacity in terms of their ability to deliver care, both in terms of organizational resources, and personal time and energy. Many individual and small-group practices simply do not have the resources to understand and implement the constantly changing mandates from CMS. Therefore, when you hand them a forever evolving checklist of arbitrary measures that they must follow in order to be reimbursed properly, you only increase confusion and frustration, and do little to impact productivity or foster a system that delivers better care.
Secondly, for any physician who sees their reimbursement cut by providing “sub-optimal care”, as deemed by CMS, what is to stop them from refusing to serve their sickest, most chronically ill and frequently hospitalized patients? In so doing, they raise the “quality” of care they provide, and lower the cost at the same time (they will not be responsible for those sick patients when CMS evaluates them the next year). Such a reaction to pay-for-performance would only further accelerate a current trend in medicine, which is seeing many physicians refuse to accept new Medicare patients.
It is impossible to forecast how pay-for-performance will ultimately impact the quality of care we provide, and the cost at which we do so. But one thing is certain; the job of physicians providing that care becomes more difficult every day.
Read the full piece here.
