The case for paying primary care more than specialists

Value-based care was supposed to upend U.S. healthcare. Changing incentives and how the massive amounts of money circulating through the system flowed so providers were rewarded more for prevention and good outcomes and less for volume and intensity would be nothing if not disruptive.

Has it played out that way? “It depends on what you mean by disruption,” says Suzanne Delbanco, Ph.D., M.P.H., executive director of the Catalyst for Payment Reform, a nonprofit group founded in 2010 that has large employers such as Walmart and Home Depot as its members. “If the question is, has it disrupted providers and...