Performance Pay Brings Utah Physicians $1.5 Million

09.03.2009 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) Utah physicians in a Medicare performance pay pilot program earned $1.5 million in the first year. Project manager Stormy Sweitzer with the Salt Lake City-based non-profit HealthInsight says the program aims to improve the quality of care Medicare patients receive.

“What Medicare hopes will happen is that providers will look at their performance and say ‘Wow, you know, out of 50 patients that should have received such and such care, only 10 did. How do we make changes to the way we practice to ensure that those other 40 also receive appropriate care?” Sweitzer says.

Physicians in 100 practices are participating in the pilot project. Payments ranged from $260 to $62,500 per practice for improving preventive care, like making sure patients are up to date on vaccinations, heart and cancer screenings and general wellness check-ups. Sweitzer says this can catch underlying health issues before they turn into more serious problems that cost more to treat. She says this pilot program could determine whether increasing the quality of care could make the taxpayer-funded Medicare program more cost-effective.

“Does having preventive care and management of chronic care conditions being taken place proactively help reduce the cost of more urgent care down the line? The hope is that by managing those conditions earlier on will reduce the cost of critical care later on,” Sweitzer says.

Utah is one of three states participating in the pilot project. The bulk of the money went to physicians in 20 practices that use electronic health records. There are two more years remaining in the program.