Goodbye Fee for Service, Hello Pay for Performance! Most recently, Outcome reporting is becoming a more prevalent topic of interest within the Physical Therapy industry. More interestingly, did you know that the Physical Therapy profession has been fighting barriers with identifying the true value of rehabilitation for years? Which is a huge reason why PTs have evolved from a certificate program to a Doctorate level medical professional. Bravo!
So what is Pay for Performance?
Recently stated in Health Affairs that Pay for Performance is a new payment systems that reward doctors and hospitals for improving the quality of care. Sounds fair enough right, however, this became grew to a current issue that leaves many with mixed notions.
So, what is the difference between Fee for Service Pay for Performance?
Fee for service is built on a model of service delivery, physicians charge separate fees for each service(s) provided to their patients. This is ideal as it allows the providers to receive maximal revenues. And as we all understand that in our industry, practice revenues is thee lifeline.
So although, the goal of Pay for Performance will certainly improve the standards of healthcare, it does affect the reimbursements for providers. For those in the Physical Therapy industry, it seems as if we have just gotten another curve ball thrown at us on top of all of the other regulations, rules and requirements already in place.
Please stay tuned to our blog as our next articles will be on how we can implement the Pay for Performance model, improve quality of care AND preserve maximum insurance reimbursements by utilizing OUTCOMES.