The study, conducted by UCLA Department of Urology and the Veteran’s Health Administration and published Monday, compared the number of services provided per individual patient to Supplementary Medical Insurance payment data from 2012.
Results indicated the nation’s highest paid physicians earn more by ordering more procedures per patient, rather than by seeing more individual patients, according to the report.
“Our findings suggest a weakness in fee-for-service medicine,” Jonathan Bergman, MD, assistant professor of urology and family medicine at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine and an urologist and bioethicist at the Veterans’ Health Administration in Los Angeles told U.S. News & World Report. “Perhaps it would make more sense to reimburse clinicians for providing high-quality care, or for treating more patients.”
Many believe fee-for-service medicine gives physicians a financial incentive to order more procedures for their patients, according to the report. To transition away from this to a value-based care model, CMS encouraged the creation of accountable care organizations as part of the Medicare Shared Savings Programs under PPACA. However, ACOs do not directly prohibit the continuation of the fee-for-service model, though they are intended to provide financial incentives to improve care, according to the report.
“Rather than react to externalities imposed by payers, clinicians can lead the movement toward a high-value, patient-centered care,” according to the study. “[Clinicians] are uniquely empowered to ensure that all individuals access the procedures they need and are not exposed to those they don’t.”
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