| Inside Report: Large Medical Groups Pay Member Physicians On Quality-Patient Satisfaction
Fifty percent of large medical groups surveyed in the U.
S. received bonus payments from insurance plans based on quality and
patient satisfaction, according to a recent analysis.
The survey results found that medical groups with "such
external pay-for-performance incentives were more likely to pay their
primary care physicians and specialists according to quality and
satisfaction measures."
By comparison, groups working under capitation payment
incentives to control costs were more likely to pay their physicians a
salary and less likely to pay based on productivity than groups whose
insurers paid on a fee-for-service basis, the study found.
The study, which looked at data from the 2006-2007 period, appeared in the journal Inquiry published by Excellus Health Plan.
Other key findings include:
- Nearly one-fourth of large medical groups surveyed
pay their member physicians partially based on measures of quality and
patient satisfaction;
- Fifty-two percent of large medical groups received bonus payments based on quality and patient satisfaction measures;
- For primary care physicians, bonuses averaged 7.6 percent; for specialists, the average was 6.1 percent; and
- Whether the medical group chooses to pay performance
bonuses to its individual physicians is significantly associated with
whether the medical group receives P4P bonuses.
Overall, the survey found that "the prevalence of
external performance bonuses paid by insurers to large medical groups
is larger than the prevalence of performance bonuses paid by the
medical groups to the primary care and specialist physicians."
The report on the analysis "Quality-Based Payment for
Medical Groups and Individual Physicians," was prepared by James C.
Robinson, Stephen M. Shortell, Diane R. Rittenhouse, Sara
Fernandes-Taylor, Robin R. Gillies, and Lawrence P. Casalino.
Inquiry, the journal of health care organization, provision, and financing, is a peer-reviewed scholarly publication.
Address: Inquiry, P.O. Box 527, Glenview, IL 60025; (847) 724-9280, www.inquiryjournal.org
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