Pay-for-Performance in Medicare Could Do More Harm Than Good

Kathryn Nix / April 27, 2011

Liberals’ solution to rising health care costs has consistently been to take control of health care decisions away from patients and their doctors and to place it in the hands of government. Obamacare does this by allowing unelected bureaucrats to define and reward value in the Medicare program, and the President’s proposal for deficit reduction would further empower government to interfere in the practice of medicine. This is the wrong way to reduce costs, and will have severe consequences for patients, physicians, and the quality of health care in the United States.

In 2012, Obamacare will create the “Value-Based Purchasing Program” in Medicare. Using a pay-for-performance scheme, the program will reimburse hospitals and other health care providers at different rates based on how they score on performance measures chosen by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Proponents of pay-for-performance see it as a way to use financial incentives to streamline and improve the quality of health care while attempting to reduce costs. But the fact is that standardization of the practice of medicine costs patients and physicians tremendously, and evidence shows it does very little to improve health outcomes. (more…)