WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – What if the amount of money your doctor got paid was based on if the care they provided was successful?
That’s the proposal the Trump administration says it’s ready to roll out.
The administration is embracing a decades old idea to pay your doctor more to keep your healthy instead of paying more when you get sick.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says Medicare providers who join the program would make more money if their care is successful.
“When a patient stays healthy and out of the hospital…these practices will get paid a bonus,” Azar said.
“But if the patient ends up sicker than expected, these practices will be responsible for the extra spending up to a certain share.”
Azar said this “value-based” system will be optional and rolled out in a testing phase first.
He estimates a quarter of Medicare providers will eventually sign onto this payment method.
Deputy Medicare Administrator Adam Boehler says it’s not only doctors and patients who benefit, but taxpayers could see savings too.
“When you pay for quality outcomes, instead of volume, you transform a health care system that caters to special interests,” he said.
The American Medical Association, the nation’s leading doctors’ organization, says it’s got to be an improvement over the system we have now.
The program is expected to begin testing in January.