To Achieve Value-Based Payment, Fix the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule

The Issue

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is testing alternatives to fee-for-service payment that incentivize physicians to deliver better value to patients and the Medicare program. These alternative payment models (APMs), however, must work with the existing Medicare physician fee schedule, which is itself in need of retooling. Medicare, as well as private insurers and state Medicaid programs, follow the schedule in reimbursing doctors. With Commonwealth Fund support, Robert Berenson, M.D., a fellow at the Urban Institute, and Paul B. Ginsburg, director of the Center for Health Policy...