According to the commission’s recommendations, primary care physicians, specialists and hospitals would create networks that would be responsible for a patient’s total well-being and would receive a flat monthly or annual fee, called a global payment. If the fee is more than what it costs to treat the patient, the networks would keep the difference as a profit. The global payments would then reward the healthcare networks for keeping a patient healthy, rather than treating them for individual ailments, according to the report.
The commission left many of the central decisions regarding the plan to the state legislature and to a new authority designed to oversee the new system. According to the commission’s recommendations, the plan would be enacted over the next five years, and rates would be set by the provider networks and the health insurers.
If approved by the state legislature and Gov. Deval Patrick, Massachusetts will become the first state to pay providers by a global payment rather than “fee for service,” according to the report.
Read the N.Y. Times’ report about Massachusetts’ proposed global healthcare payment system.
