Pay for performance: adding to healthcare disparities
a large Medicare study assessed the utility of the "value-based payment modifier", a quality of care incentive, finding that there was no improvement in care, but actually exacerbating health care disparities (see doi:10.7326/M17-1740): Details: --history: -- jan 2017: Medicare implemented Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) for fee-for- service Medicare patients, a pay-for-performance program to reward clinicians who improved quality of care and reduced spending, its effects are pending --but from 2013-16, there was similar system, the Value-Based Payment Modifier (VM): --2013: practices with >100 clinicians were required to meet reporting requirements or incur small reduction in 2015 payment, but performance-based payment adjustments were optional ...