Commonwealth Fund May 13, 2024
Decades of evidence shows that primary care is associated with improved health, greater patient satisfaction, and reduced health inequities, and it is strongest when teams of providers coordinate care to address patients’ needs.
Yet the way the United States currently pays for primary care limits this potential. Most primary care providers are paid on a fee-for-service basis — that is, retrospectively for each individual service they provide. This creates incentives for providers to deliver higher-priced services; discourages the provision of nonmedical services like care coordination; and encourages providers to see more patients in a day, spending less time with each.
Experts increasingly agree that to strengthen primary care in the U.S., we should promote “prospective payment” in which providers are...
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