Issue In Focus

Can Physician Payment Reform Help Create a High-Performing Health Care System?

The U.S. health care system performs poorly on many key objectives, and enhancing the system is at the top of the policy agenda. Improving the payment methods used to compensate and reward physicians could go a long way toward creating a more high-performing health care system. A new policy brief explores what is known about using physician payment to improve health system performance, suggesting that future priorities move beyond pay for performance of individual services and reward physicians for influencing totality of a patient’s care across all providers and settings.