There’s a debate in the United States about whether the current measures of health care quality are adequate to support the movement away from fee-for-service toward value-based payment. Some providers advocate slowing or even halting payment reform efforts because they don’t believe that quality can be adequately measured to determine fair payment. Employers and other purchasers, however, strongly support the currently available quality measures used in payment reform efforts to reward higher-performing providers. So far, the Trump administration has not weighed in.
U.S. Health Care Reform Can’t Wait for Quality Measures to Be Perfect
Delaying the move to value-based payment is not an option.
October 04, 2017
Summary.
U.S. policymakers have been debating health care payment reform. While the Trump administration has yet to weigh in, delaying the move to value-based payment is not an option for three reasons. First, even imperfect measurement and transparency accelerate quality improvement. Second, the act of using measures will improve measurement. And third, returning to fee-for-service is not an option.