Bonuses to Doctors Who Provide Good Care
Posted by
Dan FrithFebruary 04, 2008 6:51 AMMy blog posts are filled with stories and commentaries of the short comings of the healthcare industry in America. Well, here is an idea I fully support...let's pay the good doctors more money than the bad doctors!
Large employers like General Electric, International Business Machines, Corp., and Verizon Communications have launched an initiative to pay doctors hefty bonuses for providing good care to their patients. The program is a part of the Bridges to Excellence program - a not-for-profit organization developed by employers, physicians, health care services, researchers, and other industry experts with a mission to create significant leaps in the quality of care.
The new initiative would reward primary care doctors by making sure their patients receive cholesterol screenings, diabetes checkups, pap smears, etc. The program would also require doctors to follow up on patient referrals, systematically track test results and adhere to widely accepted medical guidelines for treating diabetes, high blood pressure, and other chronic diseases. By using this process to improve care, doctors would be entitled to receive $125 per patient annual bonuses up to a maximum of $100,000 per year.
This is a win-win situation if I ever saw one! Kudos to GE, IBM, Verizon and others for taking this innovative approach!