The methods of physician reimbursement in the United States
Indemnity payment is a certain fee per procedure – according to a table of allowances. They can vary among insurance plans. The provider can charge an amount above that to the patients. The table of allowances is based on a relative value scale where each procedure is rated by a point system reflecting the difficulty to determine a dollar value. There is no patient protection (Williams and Torrens, 2008).
Service benefits pay a percentage per procedure about 80% of what is considered usual and customary fees (UCR). The patient will have information on what a reasonable charge is and has some protection with that reference (Williams and Torrens, 2008).
Fixed fees are based on a contractual agreement the provider accepts with the insurance and usually no other charges can be applied for patient expense. Medicaid plans have this arrangement in many states. HMOs are fixed fees (Williams and Torrens, 2008).
Prepayment or Capitation is provided under HMO plans, in which providers are paid a "lump sum" per patient regardless of how many services the patient receives. This is usually on a monthly basis. This encourages the provider to control costs. A patient may not get the exact care they need with a cost cutting mentality being advocated. Patients with too many problems may be passed off to someone else (Williams and Torrens, 2008).
Fee-for-Service – fee is paid for service or procedure provided. Physicians would have a sliding fee scale for lower income patients. With health insurance a more regulated fee structure came along with one schedule of charges for all payers. This method rewarded the provider more closely to output services. Patients had more economic power ...
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...e a minimum premium plan allows employers to self fund claim expenses up to a predetermined amount after which an insurer policy assumes financial liability. Self insurance avoids the risk charges, administrative fees and profits paid to the insurer and rolled in to the premium. Self funding allows employers to avoid taxes assessed by states on premium income and to avoid state directives to cover certain services when they design a plan (Williams and Torrens, 2008 p. 113).
Works Cited
Medicare. n.d. Retrieved from www.mymedicare.gov
Medicare ProgramQuickOverview.n.d. Medicare Consumer Guide. Retrieved from: www.medicareconsumerguide.com/medicare.html
National Council on Aging. My Medicare Matters. n.d. Retrieved from www.mymedicarematters.org/navigator
Williams, S. and Torrens, P. (2008) Introduction to health services. Delmar Cenage.Clifton Park, NewYork.
Payment basis is known as the methods used by the one making payments for services provided by hospitals or doctors. There are three payment determination bases. First, cost-payment basis is a method for determining fees for medical services, and is basically the underlying method for payment is the provider’s cost. The exact amount is determined and agreed upon by both the provider and the patient. For example, the healthcare provider’s cost for providing the service could be $2,000. The healthcare provider can then choose to charge 70% of the total charge, which comes out to be $1500. There are different levels that can be used in cost based reimbursement. On the macro basis, payment can be provided for a whole array of services. Contrarily, payments for specific items are on a micro basis. Critical access hospitals usually use macro level cost reimbursement. On the other hand, healthcare providers often use micro level cost reimbursement when charging for expensive medications, meaning that the price of those medications will be based differently than their usual services (Abbey, 2012).
It is generally accepted that the method of payment to physicians affect their professional attitude and behaviour. Consequently, health policy makers manipulate payment system in an attempt to achieve optimal health care for their citizens such as improve accessibility, quality of care, patient’s satisfaction and cost containment. In Ontario, there are a wide range of mechanisms that are used to pay physicians for their services that are funded by both federal and provincial government. According to Canada Health Act annual report (2013), the majority of primary healthcare physicians are funded using the fee for service payment arrangement but of that majority, only less than 30% are compensated exclusively according the fee for service plan. The remaining physicians are funded using one of the following mixed compensation models:
Hospitals were reimbursed using a fee-for-service standard, sanctioning all insurance companies to pay the same prices for hospital services offered by different providers. Due to removing restrictions on hospital prices, hospitals now negotiate reimbursement rates for each payer, thus, causing a substantially difference in prices among payers.
Fee-For-Service or Traditional Indemnity plans are uncommon but still used. Payment is rendered for services provided. Traditional Indemnity plans in general have no provider network and a patient can see a specialist without a referral. If a patient uses an FFS plan, the patient would pay the provider for medical care provided. If the medical care provided is covered by the plan. The insurance company would then reimburse the patient according to the guidelines stated in the policy or the UCR’s “Usual, Customary, and Reasonable Fees.” (“Private-Fee-For-Service Plans,” CMS.gov, 3/16/2012). Key benefits of a Traditional Indemnity or Fee-for-Service plan include no in network physicians or health care providers and the patient may see any physician or seek health care services at any healthcare facility. The patient or client can also seek treatment from a specialist without a physician referral. Fee-for-Service plans are the most flexible plans for choosing a healthcare provider and health care facility. However, Traditional
Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) is a group of individual health plans that are intended to provide services for costumers’ that purchase insurance policies and for those that cannot afford health insurance. Many of these organization are led by physicians, and other professionals that network together to make health care affordable for patients. In the HMO category there are five separate managed care plan models. First, the Group Model (HMO), is a group that has a number of physicians that mainly agree to provide care to a defined group of patients in return for a fix rate capita payment for discounted fees from insurance companies (Henderson, 2012 p.212).
The private insurers are patients with other insurances. Under Medicare and Medicaid, services that are provided by the hospitals are paid by a prospective reimbursement. Prospective reimbursement is established before the services are provided. They have a defined dollar amount per day and per diagnosis. They also use a fee scheduled by CPT code or procedure code which is usually used for physicians. Since these types of insured patients only are billed a certain amount, most procedures are not fully reimbursed. Retrospective reimbursement is determined after the services have been delivered. This is one of the reasons organizations are struggling. Along with less reimbursement, the CPT codes or procedure codes have to be correct according to the procedure ordered. “If an organization wants to get paid, its better off taking the time to make sure all its codes are accurate, timely , and meet all payers’ requirements ”(Kapsambelis, 2004, p. 3).
Health Maintenance Organizations, or HMO’s, are a very important part of the American health care system. Also referred to as managed care programs, HMO's are combinations of doctors and insurance companies that are formed into one organization. This organization provides treatment to its members at fixed costs and decides on what treatment, if any, will be given based on the patient's or doctor's current health plan. Sometimes, no treatment is given at all. HMO's main concerns are to control costs and supposedly provide the best possible treatment to their patients. But it seems to the naked eye that instead their main goal is to get more people enrolled so that they can maintain or raise current premiums paid by consumers using their service. For HMO's, profit comes first- not patients' lives.
Medicare uses the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule to pay physicians and the Outpatient Prospective Payment System to pay hospitals and other outpatient facilities. Recently, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) made changes to physician and outpatient payments. The five levels clinic visit codes or five outpatient codes were replaced with a single code. “The Chronic Care Management Fee will go into effect in January 2014 and will be the new form of physician compensation. Bundle Payment is a way for paying for high volume, high cost hospital procedures. Global payment enables providers to reduce unnecessary care and bring down spending under control but creates incentives for providers to restrain the supply of services.
...l bill, the remainder of the cost will not have to be paid, and physicians will all receive a fixed fee per patient no matter the cost of the visit and exams provided (Ghosh, Chandak 70).
What is managed care? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, managed care is “a system of health care in which patients agree to visit only certain doctors and hospitals, and in which the cost of treatment is monitored by a managing company.” Managed care is a variety of techniques designed to reduce the cost of providing health benefits and advance the quality of care. In the United States alone, there are various managed care programs, that are ranged from more restrictive to less restrictive. As stated in the National Institutes of Health, the future of managed care is uncertain. It is enthralling to note that in spite of the advances in healthcare systems, such as our hospital’s ability to provide patients with lower cost, managed
The balance between quality patient care and medical necessity is a top priority and the main concern of many of the healthcare organizations today. Due to the rising cost of healthcare, there has been a change in the focus of reimbursement strategies that are affecting the delivery of patient care. This shift from a fee-for-service towards a value-based system creates a challenge that has shifted many providers’ focus more directly on their revenue. As a result, organizations are forced to take a hard look at the cost of services they are providing patients and then determining if the services and level of care are appropriate for the prescribed patient care.
Each procedure performed by a doctor or other health care provider has a code attached to it that allows them to bill the insurance payer, whether private, Medicare, or Medicaid. That code is called a CPT code, which stands for Current Procedural Terminology. When a provider send a CPT code to an insurance payer, that CPT code determines how much he or she will be paid. Different codes correspond to different procedures or services and can have higher or lower costs. As long as the provider uses the correct code, then the provider is paid based on the services and procedures performed. When a provider upcodes,
Managed care dominates health care in the United States. It is any health care delivery system that combines the functions of health insurance and the actual delivery of care, where costs and utilization of services are controlled by methods such as gatekeeping, case management, and utilization review. Different types of managed care plans came into development by three major factors. These factors include choice of providers, different ways of arranging the delivery of services, and payment and risk sharing. Types of managed care organizations include Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) which consist of five common models that differ according to how the HMO is related to the participating physicians, Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs), Exclusive Provider Organizations (EPO), and Point of Service Plans (POS). `The information management system in a managed care organization is determined by the structure of the organization' (Peden,1998, p.90). The goal of a managed care system is to provide subscribers and dependants with needed health care services at the lowest possible cost. Certain managed care plans also focus on prevention by trying to keep members healthy.
Among them is its emphasis on productivity. Fee for service encourages the delivery of care and maximizing patient visits. As a payment mechanism, it is relatively flexible in that it can be used regardless of the size or organizational structure of a physician’s practice, the type of care provided such in clinic visit, surgery, therapy session, and the place of service such as physician’s office, nursing home, hospital, surgery center or the geographical location of care. Fee for service does support accountability for patient care, but it is often limited to the scope of the service a particular physician provides at any point in time. Although fee for service is easy to understand conceptually, it can be difficult to understand in practice. Patients may struggle to decipher the coding and nomenclature involved in billing, manage the numerous bills and explanations of benefits they might receive, and understand its application in inpatient settings, especially for lab, radiology, and anesthesia services. Because payment is limited to one provider for one interaction, fee for service does little to encourage management of care across settings and among multiple
Managed health care actually combines health care delivery with the financing of services provided. This was intended to replace conventional fee-for service plans with much more affordable quality of care to the health consumers as well as the providers who was in agreement with the restrictions. However, managed care is becoming challenged due to the growth of consumer-directed health plans, which defines employer continuations and asking employees to be more responsible within their health care decisions and cost-sharing. The Americans health care system has been changing the way their health care services are organized and delivered. As seen by the movement from traditional fee-for-service systems to managed care networks. Ranging from structured staff model HMOs to the lesser structured preferred provider organizations (PPO). Statistics show that 60 million Americans are enrolled with some type of managed care program within the response to regulatory initiatives which affect health care cost and quality. Managed care organizations are responsible for the health of their enrollees, which can be administered by a physician’s group, health system, or even a hospital. Much of the managed care financing is through a method called capitation, and the enrollees are assigned to a select primary care provider, which serves as a gatekeeper.