Panel recommends overhauling US doc payments

{mosads}The NCPPR laid out a blueprint for moving away from fee-for-service and toward fixed payments within a decade. It suggested testing new models within a five-year time frame.

“The current skewed physician payment system causes a number of problem,” the report stated. “In all cases, payment … should reward behavior that improves quality, care coordination, and cost effectiveness.”

Doctor reimbursements from private and public payers should also “penalize behavior that misuses or overuses care that does not add benefits to patients but simply adds to the cost,” the report said.

The NCPPR also urged streamlined costs across medical settings, more outcome-based performance measures, and more transparency and accountability within the Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC), which advises the Medicare-Medicaid agency on physician payments.