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Base pay on results of care, doctor says
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When it comes to how physicians are paid and how health care is delivered, the time has come for a revolution. That’s according to Dr. Collin Udall, a primary care physician at Paragon Medical Associates in Mesa and who also serves on the board of Banner Physician Hospital Organization.
The way physicians are paid is how stockbrokers used to be paid about a decade ago, Udall said.
“They were paid on transactions, they were paid for selling or buying the shares,” he said. “They weren’t paid based on whether the stocks did well. A few years ago, they changed that.”
Now, stockbrokers are paid based on how well their portfolios perform, Udall said. As they recommend stock to their clients, they’re paid based on how well the stock performs, and that has revolutionized how stockbrokers operate, he said.
“Well in medicine, we’re paid by transactions in the same way that stockbrokers used to be paid by transactions,” he said. “So I’m paid to do stuff. I’m not paid based on how well the patients do. And until we change some things and make the system different, we’re always going to have the problem of there’s not enough money to go around.”
A system is needed in which physicians are measured on how they take care of their patients, he said. That would help curb unnecessary costs, while ensuring higher-quality services at a lower cost, he said.
“Let’s say for example I have a diabetic patient,” he said. “If I don’t treat my diabetic patient well or if they don’t come to see me, that diabetic patient is going to have a heart attack somewhere in the next five years. That heart attack costs $55,000 to treat.”
Creating a system of measurement would mean caregivers would compete for clients, and therefore drive up value while driving down cost, Udall said.
“But that’s not where medicine is right now,” he said.
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