As more players in health care embrace the idea of pay-for-performance programs, the commercial media are beginning to evaluate the risks and benefits of this incentive-based type of reimbursement. Following are some quotes from articles about P4P.
“Health plans in New York and around the country are increasingly tying higher reimbursement rates for hospitals and health care providers to performance.”
-- Central New York Business Journal, Sept. 9, 2005
“By demanding higher quality, (employers) hope to rid the health care system of costly errors and inefficiencies.”
-- U.S. News & World Report, July 25, 2005
“Pay for performance can improve the quality of care, increase the value we receive, and encourage the adoption of information technology and electronic medical records.”
-- WellPoint Chairman Leonard Schaeffer, M.D., in Managed Care Magazine, July 2005
“We can no longer simply pay the bills for health care without using those payments as an incentive to improve the quality of that care for Medicare beneficiaries.”
-- John Rother, AARP group executive officer for policy and strategy, June 30, 2005
“The pay-for-performance push is part of a broader effort to increase the role of information technology in health care."
-- BusinessWeek, June 29, 2005
“A majority (57%) of respondents (in the Commonwealth Fund Health Care Opinion Leaders survey) rated pay for performance as an extremely or very effective way to reduce health care costs."
-- The Commonwealth Fund, May 13, 2005
“If (a Medicare performance-based experiment currently under way) is eventually adopted throughout the federal program, which covers 42 million Americans, Medicare’s size and influence could help drive the rest of private health coverage in a similar direction.”
-- The New York Times, April 15, 2005
“(CMS Administrator Mark) McClellan wants Medicare to adopt a similar pay-for-performance plan, and considers the program started in Cincinnati one of the best models for how the government’s version of the incentives should work.”
-- WJLA Online ABC 7 News, Cincinnati, March 30, 2005
“The way forward is to forget about consciously trying to contain costs … and focus instead on improving quality. (Harvard health care economist David Cutler) would rearrange the incentive structure of the health care market to reward hospitals, HMOs and other medical enterprises for improving the actual health outcomes of patients, rather than just for delivering the service, as is the case now.”
-- Washington Monthly, March 13, 2005
“P4P programs, which link financial incentives to a health care provider's ability to deliver high-quality medical care, are changing the way that many insurers and providers look at health care economics.”
--HealthLeaders Magazine, February 2005
“Most importantly, (P4P) encourages preventive medicine, which is far cheaper than treating patients who routinely use emergency rooms for basic medical needs."
-- The Detroit News, Nov. 29, 2004
“While still in its infancy, a new model that bases reimbursement on high-quality clinical performance should sweep health care within five to 20 years.”
-- Healthcare Financial Management, November 2004
“In the next five to 10 years, pay-for-performance-based compensation could account for 20 percent to 30 percent of what the federal (Medicare) program pays providers.”
-- CMS' McClellan in The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 17, 2004
