KIND: PAY FOR QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY
Friday, November 20th, 2009 -- 10:08 AM
A congressman from our area thinks passing health care reform will be vital our nation?s economic fortunes.Rep. Ron Kind (D-La Crosse) says lawmakers are still hopeful they can get something to the President by the end of the year, but it's tough.
"It's complicated, it's emotional, it affects every single life in this country," Kind notes. "It's one-fifth of the entire economy. It has been the great anchor on economic growth and job creation in this country."
"It's all those things that makes arriving at some consensus so difficult," he concludes.
But, he thinks he has found something that almost everyone can agree on: the payment models need to change to reward quality and not quantity of care.
"(We need) to change from the current fee-for-service system, which is volume-based reimbursements for Medicare today, to a quality-based system," Kind says.
Experts know how to make the changes. The Institute of Medicine has been developing a map for the government to follow, Kind says.
On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid revealed their $848-billion reform bill. A vote could come as early as Saturday.
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