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Hospital Pay for Performance: Aligning Medical Staffs and Quality for a Healthy Bottomline
June 1, 2006 - Pay for performance (P4P) has become a contentious debate in healthcare recently. Will
P4P improve quality of care? Will it reduce healthcare costs? Will it fairly and adequately incentivize
and compensate providers? As the debate ensues, hurricane P4P is gaining tremendous strength and the eye
of the storm shows no signs of weakening. Therefore, providers must begin to take steps to provide care
and be reimbursed for that care within the context of a P4P environment. Hospitals, especially, need to
take note. To date, the majority of P4P initiatives and related rhetoric has surrounded the physician
practice; however, a major hospital-centered P4P project is already in the works, the results of which
will mean significant implications for all hospitals and their bottomlines. Thus, hospital executives
should educate themselves about P4P, where it is headed and what they can do to protect their revenues.
Driving Forces Behind Pay for Performance Initiatives
Pay for performance didn't just appear overnight. Several factors influenced its birth. Employers, policy
makers and consumers have long had an interest in improving quality of care, access to care, and, to a large
extent, cost. More recently, employers have joined forces with policymakers to address the cost of care.
Historically, Medicare and other payers have paid for care without questioning the quality of that care.
Now, that is changing and payers and employers are demanding quality. Their collective influence has given
rise to the ongoing healthcare debate and the birth of P4P.
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