Rising healthcare costs can be cut significantly if physicians were salaried employees, according to an op-ed penned by Tim Garson, MD, director of the Health Policy Institute at the Houston-based Texas Medical Center, in USA Today.
Dr. Garson believes the fee-for-service model is the reason for the nation's high healthcare costs because it incentivizes physicians to over-treat patients. While many pundits point to value-based care as a remedy to this issue, Dr. Garson argues physician salaries would have an equally beneficial effect.
"We can fix this problem by removing the incentives to do more and more. Start now. For example, all physicians should receive salaries, instead of payment based on volume of tests and procedures they perform," Dr. Garson writes. "In some of the best health care systems in the United States, including the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic and Kaiser Permanente, physicians are paid a salary. Payers such as Medicare and major insurers could offer bonuses to health systems that put physicians on salary."