A white paper by Meredith Rosenthal, Ph.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health, reviews the presentations at the October 2010 conference on payment reform sponsored by the Massachusetts Medical Society and the Commonwealth Fund.
The presentations were from five organizations that have implemented a variation of global payments. Dr. Rosenthal identifies six elements that are common to each of the organizations:
- Transparent (to providers and patients)
- Flexible
- Locally tailored with respectful engagement of physicians
- Undertaken through pilots with evaluation and dissemination of best practices
- Accompanied by timely data sharing from payers to providers and throughout referral networks
- Supported by resources adequate for providers and payers to make the transition to new models
Dr. Rosenthal writes, "The process by which reform proceeds is critically important to its success."
Download the report. (.pdf, 10 pages, 103 kb)
