What's New with HCFO - 08/24/2005 (Plain Text Version)In this issue: Hot Topic--Developing Pay-for-Performance Programs“Paying for performance” is a health care financing strategy that is gaining momentum. At its essence, a pay-for-performance program rewards health care providers, including physicians and hospitals, for improving the quality of care they provide to patients. Pay-for-performance programs are multi-faceted and their implementation is complex. Some private payers have initiated pay-for-performance systems and Congress is contemplating repealing its current formula for calculating Medicare physician payments and replacing it with a system under which physicians would be compensated for meeting certain quality thresholds. HCFO research helps to inform policymakers who are debating the merits of this evolving payment strategy.
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