Matthew Holt of The Health Care Blog takes a thoughtful stab at my recent paper on “pay-for-performance” and Medicare.
Pay-for-performance is one of those hip health policy buzzwords that comes with a catchy acronym: P4P. The idea is that private insurers or the government can improve health care quality through financial rewards for providers who deliver what the payer considers “quality” care. P4P stands in contrast to “pay-for-volume,” which is how third-party payers have traditionally paid providers.
My thesis is that P4P has promise, but is very, very tricky. A bureaucracy that rewards providers for what it considers high-quality care can actually encourage low-quality care for the poor saps who happen not to be the average patient.
There’s nothing wrong with P4P, so long as patients who are getting short-changed have the right to opt out (i.e., switch insurers). P4P’s potential is sure to be lost if the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) get into the game. For example, since Medicare’s P4P scheme would be emulated by Medicare Advantage plans and other private insurers, many patients would have no escape.