Physician payment and performance measurement: Is it fair?

How much time does it actually take for primary care physicians and specialists to deliver care, and should time be considered when determining payment? When it comes to physician performance, are we measuring what’s truly important or just analyzing quality data that’s readily available? Will new CMS rules governing E/M coding help or hinder the practice of medicine? In this episode, Dr. Gordon Moore talks with self-proclaimed healthcare contrarian Dr. Robert Berenson, a Fellow with the Urban Institute, about how to reform our current inefficient healthcare delivery system. 

“...In terms of getting our money's worth on quality, I'm something of a contrarian because I think it is very difficult at the individual clinician level to actually measure performance. I think the government's first responsibility is to protect the public from substandard or even fraudulent behavior....I don't think we are in a position to actually rank physicians who are providing acceptable medical care. And in some cases, we should just stop trying. We're much better off at measuring population health…I think it's been a great deal of effort for very little gain and has demoralized the physicians and created a real financial burden.”
— Robert Berenson, MD, Fellow, Urban Institute

Resources

“The False Choice Of Burden Reduction Versus Payment Precision In The Physician Fee Schedule” Health Affairs. August 15, 2018.

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