Keywords

comprehensive payment, fee-for-service, medical home, primary care, resource-based relative value scale

Authors

1. Goldfield, Norbert MD
2. Averill, Richard MS
3. Vertrees, James PhD
4. Fuller, Richard MS
5. Mesches, David MD
6. Moore, Gordon MD
7. H. Wasson, John MD
8. Kelly, William MS

Abstract

The problem faced by primary care physicians is that they can only maintain or increase their (inflation adjusted) incomes by increasing the volume of visits and associated services. The fundamental flaw in a fee-for-service system is that only paying for individual services creates incentives for more services. This article offers a very different approach to paying primary care physicians that will result in both significantly higher incomes for these underpaid professionals together with incentives for creating a medical home.