Trump Administration to Test Run Paying Healthcare Providers Based on Results
New program announced by Health and Human Services Secretary
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The Trump administration has unveiled a new program that will pay primary healthcare providers with a result driven system based on patient health and outcomes.
Alex Azar, the Health and Human Services Secretary, announced that his agency would experiment with two new 'result driven' payment model, using existing administrative authorities.
A quarter or more traditional Medicare beneficiaries are projected to enroll in the new program that pays for keeping patients healthy.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will “test out paying for health and outcomes rather than procedures on a much larger scale than ever before,” Azar said
According to The Washington Examiner: The first primary care model will focus on smaller primary care practices, which will be paid a flat fee per patient. If the patient stays healthy, the method will receive a bonus. But if the patient does not, the process must pay the penalty.
The second model applies to larger practices and allows them to assume different risk level payments voluntarily.
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Like the first model, the practices are paid based on patient outcomes.
But practices will have more control over how the funds are spent, “allowing them to come up with innovative ways to care for patients, and receive significant savings if they keep patients healthier than expected,” Azar said.
Local entities could also be awarded funds to focus on a specific area, promoting positive patient outcomes on a local, community level.
Azar said the new system “will radically elevate primary care in American medicine.”
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