Pay for Performance

I am a true believer of pay-for-performance model rather than fee-for-service (FFS) model. I understand providers order additional tests to rule out diseases and also to mitigate any potential litigation. Nevertheless, many providers just simply order wasteful tests or expensive imaging procedures to earn extra bucks. For example, high-cost technology such as  MRI machines are used to make diagnoses when a simple X-ray would do.  

Retailers and products are well used to be rated for their quality and services. Consumers are willing to pay more for quality services. This principle should also apply to healthcare services, and I also believe this will lead to control healthcare cost. One item that I do cheer for in this healthcare reform bill is to promote pay-for-performance payment model. Although I do not know how this will turn out, I think it is a good start. Being as Healthcare IT Guru, it's so critical that we can create a system to connect a patient's episode and a quantitative outcome. Certainly, we have many tools that we can allow us to query patient session information. However, linking these datas from disparate systems together and present them in a useful way is not easy. In addition, how do we quantify performance? What benchmark should we use when comparing healthcare providers? This information is crucial to create the rules of the system. Stay tune as I will do more research in this area.

If you want to find more information about pay-for-performance model, you can read from this article. Creative payment reform initiatives

Helpful Resources:

Minnesota Health Information - Since I live in Minnesota, I of course want to compare healthcare costs in the state. This portal provides information to compare healthcare costs in different healthcare providers. I wish the user interface can be better and more user friendly.