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Saturday, November 09, 2002One of the benchmarks that some insurance companies are using to assess quality of care, is the treatment of diabetics. To do so, they’re relying on the American Diabetes Association’s provider recognition program. If a doctor qualifies for the program, they get a bonus: A physician receives $100 per patient if he becomes a member of the American Diabetes Association's provider recognition program, which awards the status to doctors who prove they do a good job of controlling blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, and other dangerous indicators in most of their diabetic patients. ...Even so, the companies and health plans hope the incentives will be large enough to convince doctors to make the extra effort. Partners has hired an administrator to help its physicians qualify for the Diabetes Association registry. Only one doctor out of 5,000 in Partners, which includes the Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham & Women's Hospital, now belongs, said Dr. Thomas Lee, medical director for Partners Community HealthCare. You’ll notice that being a “recognized provider” means that you achieve good lab numbers. It has nothing to do with the patient’s quality of life. They may be incapacitated from the side effects from their medications, but if their cholesterol, sugar, and blood pressure are within standard goals, the doctor gets a bonus. There’s another problem with the program. They charge doctors for the privilege of being recognized as high quality providers. In this respect, it’s a little like the Who’s Who scam. Doctors pay a fee to get an application, then they pay a fee to process the application, and it isn’t a small fee, either: There is an $80 charge for application materials. Once the application is completed, the data are submitted along with a fee of $375 per physician up to six physicians. Group applicants with more than six physicians must submit a fee of $2500. All Program fees are nonrefundable. Now you know why only one doctor out of the 5.000 partners at the Harvard-affiliated hospitals have signed up for it. It’s silly to pay an outside organization to pat doctors on the back for doing the right thing by their patients. Which brings me to my next objection to “quality care bonuses.” They’re insulting to the profession. We’re physicians, not assembly line workers. It’s our duty and our obligation to make sure we do our best for each of our patients at all times. We shouldn’t require financial rewards to inspire us to that goal, nor should we accept them. posted by Sydney on 11/09/2002 02:27:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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