Profiles created for physicians based on the cost of the care they provide can vary widely depending upon the methods used by insurance companies to create the profiles.
Rewarding primary care physicians for providing better care to patients could end up widening medical disparities experienced by poorer people and by minorities. Increasing the number of primary care physicians is also not enough to boost U.S. health care quality and lower costs.
Increasingly common insurance plans that encourage patients to receive care from physicians who keep medical costs lower are based on unreliable estimates of doctor performance and may not achieve the intended savings.
It is time for a change before innovative medical researchers develop a new array of tests and measurements, making it even less likely that physicians will have the right answer, writes Robert Brook.
A new RAND study outlines methods that might be used to test a novel payment system for medical care that would provide doctors, hospitals and other health providers a set fee for treating an ailment such as hip replacement surgery.
New recommendations to limit the work hours of medical residents and improve their educational conditions could cost the nation's teaching hospitals about $1.6 billion annually to hire substitute workers, though society may benefit if such changes reduce medical errors as intended.
If the government is demanding transparency of physicians and hospitals, the very least the physicians and hospitals should do is demand transparency of the government, writes Robert Brook.
A large group of California physicians given financial incentives to improve the quality of medical care have begun to embrace an array of changes important to advancing quality.
April 11, 2006 News Release: RAND Study Says Health Information Technology Can Improve Quality and Efficiency; More Evidence Needed About How to Put the Technology Into Wider Use.
