Quality and not volume should guide how our health care system values services.

The Secretary of Health and Human Services is trying to gain public comments on how to transform our healthcare system to one that pays for value as one of the top priorities of the Department of Health and Human Services (the Department or HHS).

As you will see, this is an issue on which the chronic pain community needs to weigh in.

Leave your comments w/ the federal government, here:

Unlike the traditional fee-for-service (FFS) payment system, which rewards providers for the volume of care delivered, a value-driven healthcare system is one that pays for health and outcomes. Delivering better value from our healthcare system will require the transformation of established practices and enhanced collaboration among providers and other individuals and entities. The purpose of this proposed rule is to modify existing safe harbors to the anti-kickback statute and add new safe harbors and a new CMP law exception to remove potential barriers to more effective coordination and management of patient care and delivery of value-based care that improves quality of care, health outcomes, and efficiency.

If we’ve learned anything from the readers of the National Pain Report about how they’ve been treated by physicians, it’s that often “they don’t listen to me because they’ve already decided what they want to do.”

Is your doctor being encouraged to prescribe you certain procedures or pharmaceuticals? That’s what the government is curious about (I think)

Here’s their “official language”:

This proposed rule is being issued by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated Care. Further, the proposed rule would add a new safe harbor pursuant to a statutory change set forth in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (Budget Act of 2018) related to beneficiary incentives under the Medicare Shared Savings Program and a new CMP exception for certain telehealth technologies offered to patients receiving in-home dialysis, also pursuant to the Budget Act of 2018.

Let’s discuss. Whatever you share w/ the government, please share with us in the comment section.

Thanks and Happy New Year.

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