Making Health Care Reform Work: Where Physician and Employer Interests Converge

• Published in: JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association Vol. 308; no. 23; pp. 2465 - 2466
• Main Authors: Allen, Harris, Nobel, Jeremy J, Burton, Wayne N
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Medical Association 19.12.2012
• Subjects: Commerce; Cost Control; Delivery of Health Care - trends; Efficiency; Employers; Health Benefit Plans, Employee - economics; Health care policy; Health Care Reform - organization & administration; Health Promotion; Humans; Insurance, Health - economics; Motivation; Outcome Assessment (Health Care); Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act 2010-US; Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Physicians; Reforms; United States; Value-Based Purchasing; United States; United States > US
• ISSN: 0098-7484; 1538-3598; 1538-3598
• DOI: 10.1001/jama.2012.45428

Fortunately, the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) emphasis on measurement, if broadened in a new direction, offers a path that will benefit both stakeholder groups in the current reform environment. This path should bring new empowerment to employers and thereby advance the staying power of ACA's reforms. If well managed, it would also yield a major collateral benefit for physicians--better measures of the value of their care for the outcomes-oriented compensation schemes mandated by the ACA. Here, Allen et al provide several examples that illustrate missed opportunities for strengthening employer linkages vis-a-vis the ACA.