New commission to analyze physician payments

The Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) has launched a new independent board to make recommendations about payments to physicians, the organization announced Monday.

Known as the National Commission on Physician Payment reform, it will hold meetings for the next year to analyze how doctors are paid, and how accountable care organizations, medical homes and other structures will impact healthcare financing, according to AHA News Now.

"We want to continue to provide the best care possible, but the need to constrain costs can no longer be dodged," the board's honorary chairman, surgeon and former Sen. Bill Frist said in a statement. "We are taking away money from nursing homes, schools and other public services to pay for ever-escalating healthcare expenses."

The 13-member panel is receiving funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the California HealthCare Foundation and the Sergei S. Zinkoff Fund for Medical Education and Research, according to Family Practice News.

The commission expects to issue its own report on reforming the healthcare payment system by early 2013.

For more:
- here's the SGIM announcement (.pdf)
- read the AHA News Now article
- read the Family Practice News article
- visit the commission's website