Yesterday at its Annual National Institute in Las Vegas, HFMA released the first in a series of reports that will collectively address building a new healthcare payment system, Healthcare Payment Reform: From Principles to Action. The report was the result of significant input from representatives of a variety of key stakeholders--consumers, providers, payers, and employers--who took time to contribute to this critical topic.
According to the report, the current healthcare payment system blocks true reform by inadequately rewarding wellness, high-quality care, and efficiency, and by driving up costs through the system’s complexity. Effective payment system reform must take place within a set of principles that support the nation’s health goals, as well as the needs of all key stakeholder groups. HFMA has worked with healthcare thought leaders around the country to identify the following principles, as well as actions needed to make those principles a reality:
* Quality: Payments should encourage and reward high-quality care and discourage medical errors and ineffective care.
* Alignment: Payments should align incentives among all stakeholders to maximize the efficiency and coordination of health services.
* Fairness: Payment systems should sufficiently balance the needs and concerns of all stakeholders.
* Simplification: Payment processes should be simplified, standard, and transparent.
* Societal benefit: The resources needed to support broad societal benefits such as medical and public education, medical research, and care for disenfranchised or uninsured persons should be identified and paid for explicitly.
The report also presents a number of payment types and elements that can support these principles, along with areas of stakeholder consensus and concern about each. Read the report.
