|
|
 |
|
 |
|
Pay for performance. Medicare and private insurers tend to pay standard rates, regardless of quality, despite the fact that errors and other defects can produce significant additional costs. The federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has already begun modest testing of pay-for-performance rewards. Those efforts should be expanded substantially and best practices documented and disseminated. Medicare's leadership could also be instrumental in moving private payers, which so far have been slow to institute value-based purchasing strategies.
|
|
|
Demonstrate new approaches. The Institute of Medicine issued a report in the fall of 2002 calling for statewide demonstrations of health insurance coverage for all, model chronic care and primary care initiatives, information technology, and medical malpractice.(36) A ten-year federal commitment of $50 billion would go a long way toward putting those recommendations into action in a number of states.
|
|
|
Invest in research. We urgently need to gather evidence on what works to improve care, eliminate waste, and promote efficiency. The federal government pays $455 billion annually for health care but devotes only $300 million to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The Agency's national report(37) on the quality of American health care could be an important starting point, but it should be followed with significant new investment in research.
|
|
|
The Commonwealth Fund seeks to be a catalyst for change by identifying promising practices and contributing to solutions that could help us achieve a high performance health system. The Fund's role is to help establish a base of scientific evidence on what works, mobilize talented people to transform health care organizations, and collaborate with organizations that share its concerns. Our communications efforts enable us to spread the word, share knowledge and experience, and urge the agenda forward. At this critical juncture, we hope our work will contribute to the creation of a bold new strategy to make high-quality health care accessible to all Americans.
|
| |
|
| |
|
Previous |
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
|
Next
|
| |
|
Previous Article | Next Article
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
