Physicians See More Pay Tied To Patient Satisfaction And Outcomes

Physician practices are seeing more of their pay and bonuses based on “value-based metrics such as patient satisfaction and outcome measures,” a new analysis shows.
The shift away from fee-for-service reimbursement that has historically paid doctors based on the volume of care they deliver is a trend escalating as health insurance companies and the federal government shift to value-based models like bundled payments and accountable care organizations.
“Of the 70% of searches offering a production bonus, 56% featured a bonus based in whole or in part on quality metrics such as patient satisfaction, adherence to treatment protocols, etc.,” according to Merritt Hawkins’ 2019Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives. “This is up from 43% in 2018 Review and is the highest percent of contracts offering a quality-based production bonus that Merritt Hawkins has tracked.”
It’s a trend that is expected to only intensify with health insurers including Aetna, Cigna and UnitedHealth Group shifting more than half of their reimbursements to value-based models that pay doctors based on quality of care delivered and the health outcomes of their patients. That means more reimbursement to doctors will come via bundled payments, accountable care organizations (ACOs), medical home models and pay-for-performance contracts.
Take Cigna, for example, which earlier this year "exceeded its value-based care goal” established in 2015 of having “50 percent of Medicare and commercial health care provider payments through alternative payment arrangements in the company’s top 40 markets by year-end 2018.” Cigna’s rivals including Aetna and UnitedHealth Group say they’re also paying out more than half of their reimbursements to providers via value-based care models.

Merritt Hawkins vice president Phil Miller said his firm is on a “continual quest for the Goldilock's zone” when “crafting a compensation formula that includes just enough volume-based metrics to keep physicians busy seeing patients but also enough quality-based metrics to ensure they are achieving high patient satisfaction scores, are following treatment protocols, and buying into an increasingly quality-based world.”
“It can be a difficult balancing act, but we see more clients making the effort to include a meaningful quality component into their physician compensation models," Miller said. 
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  1. AnonymousJuly 25, 2019 at 10:10 PM

    The shift away from fee-for-service reimbursement that has historically paid doctors based on the volume of care they deliver is a trend escalating as health insurance companies.Best health insurance harrisburg

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