Interesting theory here: pay more money to the initial point-of-contact physicians, allow them to spend more time with the patient, let them perform a more thorough screening, and just maybe it will save money in the long run.  It makes very good sense and early experiments in several states by multiple payers presented in this article show that it might just be true.  It might also entice more medical students back toward primary care.

The idea is that by paying family physicians, internists and pediatricians to devote more time and attention to their patients, insurers and patients can save thousands of dollars downstream on unnecessary tests, visits to expensive specialists and avoidable trips to the hospital.

Nationally, Medicare and commercial insurers pay an average of only about $60 a visit to the office of a primary-care doctor and rarely if ever pay for telephone or e-mail consultations. Many health policy experts say the payments are not enough to let the doctors spend more than a few minutes with each patient.

Tags: insurance, physicians, primary care, reimbursement

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 4:22 pm and is filed under Economics, Finance, Insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.