Pay-For-Performance

The Medicare program leads the way in utilization of pay-for-performance, a cost-containment measure that pays health care providers according to how well they meet certain quality standards. Providers that meet most or all of the required quality standards get reimbursed by the Medicare program at a higher rate than those who do not. Some private insurers also use pay-for-performance measures, but the trend has not fully caught on in the private sector.

The health care community has mixed feelings about how well pay-for-performance will work in the long run - some feel that it will significantly cut costs and improve health care quality, while others believe the exact opposite will happen. This article is a great way to look at pay-for-performance from several different perspectives.