CHQPR February 6, 2022
Although many chronic conditions can be managed effectively by a primary care practice (if the practice is paid adequately and appropriately to do so), some patients with a chronic condition will need services from a specialist for diagnosis, development of a care plan, and/or treatment and care management. This is particularly true for patients who have difficult-to-diagnose symptoms and severe, complex, or uncommon conditions.
In order to ensure that all patients can receive the most effective care, specialists who diagnose and treat chronic conditions need to receive adequate and appropriate payments for their services. Unfortunately, standard fee-for-service payment systems fail to pay adequately for all of the specialty services that patients need, and current value-based payment systems (such as performance-based...