The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) met this week with physicians, insurance companies, and employers to propose a system to pay health care providers based on performance and quality. They’re looking to change the current system that pays physicians based on how many medical services they provide.
A pay-for-performance system will provide incentive to administer the best and most appropriate care — and help improve doctors’ quality of care.
“We don’t want to buy the kind of care we’re getting any more. We have turned doctors into little chipmunks on a wheel, pumping out patients every five minutes, ” said the director for Health Care Technology and Strategic Initiatives, Dr. Paul H. Grundy.
The new system will encourage doctors to spend more time with patients, help them manage chronic conditions, and communicate outside of office hours by phone or email.
“We are empowering doctors to once again have a doctor-patient relationship, ” said Dr. Grundy.
The NCQA has worked with many prominent physicians’ groups, health insurers, and businesses — including the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Physicians, Aetna, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Humana, UnitedHealth, WellPoint, CVS Caremark, IBM, and Walgreens.
They will present their proposal for the pay-for-performance system in Washington today, reported the New York Times.