Government
Pay for performance scrutinized
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Nov. 22, 2004
The National Quality Forum will hold a workshop early next year to begin standardizing guidelines for pay-for-performance programs.
NQF aims to develop a set of criteria that can be used to judge incentive-based initiatives that involve public or private payers and that center on the hospital setting. The group, whose members include the American Medical Association, will hold the Washington, D.C., event at the behest of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Although the number of pay-for-performance programs in the United States is rapidly growing, there is a concern about the lack of standards for how to implement them, said Kenneth Kizer, MD, president and CEO of the forum. "It is highly likely that within a relatively short time, pay-for-performance programs will become the norm for health care reimbursement," he said.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/11/22/gvbf1122.htm.
