Doc Pay Method May Deter Shift To Value

Compensation variation affects incentives as they filter down to physicians

Shifting doctors to pay-for-value models will not be simple.

A recent report from the American Medical Association looked at proposed payment methods in models such as accountable care organizations, episodic bundles of care and risk-adjusted global budgets, to see how they line up with current approaches for compensation.

What was found was that the way physicians are compensated now – through a variety of methods – may not align with the way incentives are structured in pay-for-value models.

“What is clear is that payment filters down to the physician in different ways that depend on the characteristics of a physician’s practice,” said Carol Kane, a senior economist at the AMA, in the report. “Changed incentives at the practice level may be felt differently at the physician level depending on what compensation methods are in place.”