As we hiked through St. Louis we stayed at the home of Anna Sandidge, a Social Justice Instructor at St. Louis University. Anna shared some knowledge about a Chinese health care system where doctors were paid to keep patients well. If a patient fell ill, then a doctor did not get paid. I thought at the time that such an approach just made too much sense in a system such as ours, where we make payments to bookies (corporations) and gamblers (their stockholders), with the incentive that being sick gets the most out of our premiums by diverting money from the bookies and gamblers to reward health care providers more.
Lo and behold, I was alerted today about an approach to health care that reflects the model shared by Anna. Here’s a pertinent excerpt.
Under the model, formalized under the federal health reform law, doctors and hospitals that show they have improved Medicare patients’ health and satisfaction get a cut of any savings in the form of bonus payments. Providers that don’t make the grade either forgo the extra money or pay a penalty.
“You don’t get any financial gain in an ACO unless the most important thing happens, which is you have to demonstrate that your patients are getting healthier and that there’s a very high level of satisfaction by your patients,” said Kenneth Schmidt, president and CEO of PCHC.
The new approach is designed to upend the existing system that pays health care providers based on the number of patients they see and the amount of services and procedures they order. The hope is that doctors, nurses and other providers will work together to keep better tabs on patients’ health.
This excerpt was taken from the online Health section of the Bangor Daily News.
