Is Payment Reform Exiting a 2+Year Shelter-in-Place?
The pandemic stimulated significant uncertainty about the future of payment reform. After all, payment reform is a disruptive strategy, requiring providers to modify practice patterns and payers to negotiate measures of performance by which providers are held accountable for care quality. The early days of the pandemic were a time during which pushing payers and providers on payment reform could have been viewed as being out of touch with the magnitude of the situation. The pandemic created a pause and stimulated leaders to rethink the potential of payment reform. For example, we pondered whether hybrid capitation/fee-for-service would gain momentum as a means for primary care providers to receive guaranteed revenue. And we continue to ponder it, because frankly, our $4+ trillion health care system doesn’t turn on a dime. CPR has been and remains in the
