United Healthcare and Payment reform

Attached a link http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203315804577211660010608608.html to an interesting article published in the Wall Street Journal titled " New Way to Pay Doctors: UnitedHealth, Nation's Largest Insurer, Is Latest to Announce Fee Overhaul." According to the article " Under the new plan the carrier is rolling out, part of medical providers' compensation could be tied to goals such as avoiding hospital readmissions and ensuring patients get recommended screenings. UnitedHealth has been trying such efforts on a more limited scale, but now the company says it plans to roll out new contracts nationwide that could include financial rewards for care the company considers high-quality and efficient, and in some cases potentially withhold expected increases if certain standards aren't met." Under an aggressive projection, costs could amount to as much as $3.27 per member a month by 2015, with savings as high as $7.80, the documents said. Using a less-aggressive scenario, the company said, the costs could amount to 46 cents, and the savings to $1.35, per member a month. Much of the cost under both projections wouldn't be locked in, since it would be tied to bonuses that providers would get only if they hit certain goals; indeed, those payments may be calculated as a share of the overall savings achieved. According to the released information pieces of the new payments may be in lieu of increases to traditional fees. Driving the payment reform is the growing realization that the current health-care payment system, with its fees for each service, is flawed. The current system entices quantity but no quality and a value-based reimbursement system would stire healthcare towards prevention, quality and outcome oriented care. Donald Berwick, former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the initiative "looks promising," but it would be important for the incentives to be strongly enough tied to quality and patient-satisfaction measures, in addition to efficiency goals, to "ensure there's no skimping" on care. In a description of some of its pilot programs, the carrier mentioned potential bonuses of $1 to $3 per member a month for primary-care physicians. For a different provider setup, called accountable care organizations, the document said the bonuses could amount to $1 to $5 per member a month. Accountable care organizations can be built around hospitals or doctor groups, and they generally involve a provider taking overall responsibility for a group of patients. UnitedHealth also said it could offer "clinical integration" fees for providers that make changes aimed at better tracking patients' conditions and coordinating their care. This would include the model known as "patient-centered medical homes," which are typically set up by primary-care doctors, but the fees could also be available to other providers making similar efforts. In my opinion physicians can and should play a proactive role in the payment reform initiative. We have to reorganize our practices , implement efficiency measurements and form groups organized along the Patient-Centered Medical Home concept. We cannot expect that insurance companies will provide us with the panacea for our economic woes. Now is the time to act! Yours Bernd