Plan Calls for Expansion of Pay-for-Performance Program

Performance-based pay for many California doctors would increase from 1.5% to 10% of their salaries in five years under a plan to be released on Monday, the Los Angeles Times reports. The plan would expand the California Pay-for-Performance Program -- which measures quality in patient satisfaction, adoption of computer technology and providing effective treatment and preventive care.

Plan designers said the change could require reductions to annual across-the-board fee increases to physician groups paid by health plans.

In addition, the plan would change how physician performance is evaluated by adding measures of medical outcomes, such as how well a physician helps a patient manage a chronic condition like diabetes. Currently, doctors are measured on how often patients are provided with appropriate care in 10 key areas.

Steve McDermott, CEO of Hill Physicians Medical Group and chair of the CPPP planning committee, said the proposed changes to the system have been well received by leaders of state physicians groups.

However, challenges to the plan's implementation include competition among insurers, possible antitrust concerns and physician acceptance, the Times reports.

In other pay-for-performance news, the American Board of Internal Medicine on Monday is expected to announce that it will join the Bridges to Excellence pay-for-performance program, the Times reports. Under the agreement, internists who report performance data as part of a 10-year recertification program could have the information sent to Bridges of Excellence, a step that would make them eligible for quality bonuses from insurers and employers.

General Electric, Procter and Gamble, Verizon Communications and other large employers founded Bridges of Excellence three years ago. The American Board of Internal Medicine is the largest medical board in the U.S. (Girion, Los Angeles Times, 2/6).