Demonstrations Test Feasibility of Physician Pay-for-Performance

Congress may postpone consideration of specific pay-for-performance initiatives until next session, but CMS continues to investigate the P4P concept's financial viability and effects on quality of care.

In January, CMS announced the three-year Physician Group Practice initiative, intended to demonstrate the viability of P4P in 10 large, multispecialty physician practices.

Another pilot program, the Medicare Chronic Care Improvement Program, includes the three-year Mississippi Chronic Care Collaborative, which will test the value of chronic care management for 20,000 Medicare patients in the state. Among its goals is to implement a P4P system using recommendations from a physician incentives workgroup on performance measures and methodology, target values, and eligibility for participation.

AAFP actively supported the collaborative, developed by McKesson Health Solutions, because its proposal focused on providing patients a " medical home" and collaborating with community physicians in a meaningful manner, according to John Swanson, director of the AAFP Socioeconomics Division.