The health reform law will make several changes in the way health care is paid for, particularly in public programs. A May 10 briefing sponsored by the Alliance for Health Reform and The Commonwealth Fund, "Pathways to Payment Innovation in a Post-Health Reform Era," explored the major payment initiatives in the new law and their potential effects.
Panelists—including Mark Miller, executive director of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC); Gail Wilensky, a senior fellow at Project HOPE and former chairman of MedPAC; Stuart Guterman, The Commonwealth Fund's assistant vice president for Payment System Reform; and Nick Wolter, CEO of the Billings Clinic in Montana—explored such questions as: What role can payment changes play in moving health care away from the fee-for-service system toward value-based reimbursements? What can be learned from earlier public and private efforts to better align payment incentives with program goals? How will the new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation work to test new approaches, and then scale up the successful ones?
Presentations and other resources from the briefing are available on the Alliance for Health Reform Web site, and a webcast and podcast of the event are available on the Kaiser Family Foundation's site.
