I know, the very words "payment reform" are enough to put a normal person to sleep. I used to be like that, too. But toward the end of yesterday's meeting of the state's Committee on the Status of Payment Reform Legislation, I started to experience a weird, creeping excitement as the import of the proceedings sank in.
What do you think? There will be a public forum on payment reform today in Shrewsbury (details here) and I'll keep you posted. Word is that more than 50 people have signed up — further proof, perhaps, that this stuff is heating up?
*What is fee-for-service? It's the system in which health care providers are paid for "piecework," for each procedure, and thus have an incentive to do more rather than less. The alternatives have names like "global payments" and "accountable care organizations," in which providers tend to be paid for overall care of a patient instead.