The Trump administration wants to hear ideas about payment model reform from doctors rather than dictate what’s best for them, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said.
Price, who spoke Saturday at a conference of physicians in accountable care practices, said his job is not to dictate to doctors and other providers what kind of payment models to use, according to MedPageToday.
There are too many different practices and specialties for a one-size-fits-all strategy, said Price, a former orthopedic surgeon, who was the keynote speaker a conference attended by 1,900 clinicians.
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"Our job is to make it easier for physicians to use the payment models that work for them, and to put in place a system that incentivizes and accommodates innovation,” Price said, according to the publication.
Price promised flexibility in the move from volume-based to value-based payment and said fee-for-service systems may remain for some situations.
Pleased to have @SecPriceMD keynote our annual meeting @CAPGVoice. Looking forward to working with @CMSGov on #macra implementation pic.twitter.com/Tsh2VS9OYU
— Mara McDermott (@MaraMcDermott) June 26, 2017
Price, appointed as the head of HHS by President Donald Trump, had his first input into payment systems with the release last week of a proposed rule to update the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) and won praise from many doctor groups for increasing flexibility and reducing the burden on clinicians by simplifying reporting requirements.
Price called payment reforms under MACRA “truly laudable,” but said many challenges remain in standardizing measures of value when patients are unique and practices vary widely in settings and procedures, Price said, according to the report. In some cases, maintaining fee for service models “may not be the end of the world,” he said.