Pay for Performance Richmond Academy of Medicine October 11, 2005 Rick Mayes, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Public Policy

2 BACKGROUND Since health insurance premiums have increased 73% ( versus 14% in general inflation and avg. wage growth ) - avg. cost of single coverage ($4,024 annually in 2005) - avg. cost of family coverage ($10,880 annually in 2005) The percent of companies offering health insurance to their workers has fallen from 69% in 2000 to 60% in 2005 ( 5.5 million working Americans have lost their coverage since 2000 )

3 Data from Census Bureau; Bureau of Labor Statistics; CMS.

4 Source: Kaiser Family Foundation (2005)

5 OVERVIEW This presentation examines: 1.the Definition and Objectives of pay-for-performance 2.the economic & epidemiological Origins of and Momentum behind this new reimbursement system 3.and some of the potentially positive and negative Implications for hospitals and physicians

6 Definition & Objectives “p4p” is basically a new form of reimbursement—developed by insurers and employers—that attempts to differentiate among doctors and hospitals in order to financially reward those that: (1.) provide better quality care - fewer complications, quicker recovery times - more successful or better patient outcomes, etc. and those providers that (2.) do so with greater efficiency - lower costs In short, “p4p” is an emerging payment model that tries to link the quality of care to the level of payment for healthcare services.

7 Background & Objectives Insurers and particularly employers are eagerly looking for the next big paradigm(s) that they can turn to. They are desperate, particularly small business owners! Unfortunately, the three worst payment systems for rewarding high quality and performance in medicine are: (a) fee-for-service, (b) capitation, and (c) salary

8 Background & Objectives Public Policy 101: Incentives structure modern life as we know it. e.g., IRS and tax audits, HOV lanes and toll roads, Dean’s List and academic probation, parenting, teaching, dating, sales, Amway, etc. Incentives come in 3 basic flavors or varieties ( e.g., smoking ): ( a.) moral : U.S. gov’t asserts that terrorists raise money from black-market sales of cigarettes ( b.) social : banning of cigarettes in restaurants and bars ( c.) economic : $3-per-pack “sin tax” (… but not in Virginia obviously)

9 Moral/Social Incentives and Modern Life The Chicago Police Department in conjunction with the Mayor's office have now made prostitution solicitors' information available online. By using this website, you will be able to view public records on individuals who have been arrested for soliciting prostitutes or other related arrests. The following individuals were arrested and charged for either patronizing or soliciting for prostitution. It is not a comprehensive list of all individuals arrested by the Chicago Police Department for patronizing or soliciting for prostitution. The names, identities and citations appear here as they were provided to police officers in the field at the time of arrests. DOE/SMITH, JOSE M/37 54XX S ROCKWELL ST CHICAGO 1102 N CICERO AVE 2005/10/ ILCS 5.0/11-15-A-1 DOE/SMITH, CARLOS M/31 165XX BRENDEN LN. OAKPARK 1102 N CICERO AVE 2005/10/ ILCS 5.0/11-15-A-1 DOE/SMITH, JOHN M/54 28XX W 38TH PL CHICAGO 2500 S CALIFORNIA BLVD 2005/09/ ILCS 5.0/11-15-A-1 DOE/SMITH, ALEX M/28 22XX MAGNOLIA CT WEST BUFFALO GROVE 1102 N CICERO AVE 2005/10/ ILCS 5.0/11-15-A-1

10 Economic Incentives and Modern Life - Australian prison ships in the early 1900s - April 15, 1987 and the disappearance of of 7 million American children - frequent flyer miles (“loyalty programs”)

11 Origins of and Momentum behind Pay for Performance (1) Institute of Medicine reports: - To Err is Human (1999) - Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001) (2) John Wennberg & “Small-Area Large-Variation” studies: - tonsillectomy rates (1977) - cesarean section rates (1996) - variation in Medicare spending/per beneficiary

12

13

14 Source: Dartmouth Atlas of Virginia Average Number of Days in Hospital During Medicare Beneficiaries’ Last 6 Months of Life

15 Percent of Medicare Beneficiaries Admitted to ICU During the Last 6 Months of Life Source: Dartmouth Atlas of Virginia

16 Percent of Medicare Beneficiaries Admitted to ICU During Terminal Hospitalization Source: Dartmouth Atlas of Virginia

17 Number of Acute Care Hospital Beds/per 1,000 Residents Source: Dartmouth Atlas of Virginia

18 Number of Hospital Discharges for all Medical Conditions (DRGs) Source: Dartmouth Atlas of Virginia

19 Average number of physician visits per patient during last six months of life who received most of their care in one of 77 “best” US hospitals Source: John Wennberg (2005)

20 Origins of and Momentum behind Pay for Performance Researchers’ and Insurers’ Conclusions: (1.) Physician practice styles vary considerably, especially regarding diagnoses for which treatment decisions are not driven by consensus on appropriate care and it is not possible to obtain evidence-based guidelines from reading journals or consulting textbooks. e.g., back surgery rates (the #/per 1,000 Medicare beneficiaries ): - 7/per 1,000 in Naples, FL - 2/per 1,000 in Hanover, NH - 4.5/per 1,000 national average (2.) In medicine, supply generally creates its own demand (e.g., # of hospital beds/per capita, technology available, # of specialists/per capita).

21 Rates of Surgery for Back Pain/per 1,000 Medicare Enrollees Source: Dartmouth Atlas of Virginia

22 Rates of four orthopedic procedures among Medicare enrollees in 306 Hospital Referral Regions ( ) HipFractureKneeReplacementHipReplacementBackSurgery Standardized ratio (log scale) Source: John Wennberg (2005)

23 Association between cardiologists and visits per person to cardiologists among Medicare enrollees (1996): 306 HRRs Source: John Wennberg (2005)

24 The Association between Hospital Beds and Hospitalization for Hip Fracture and Congestive Heart Failure Source: Dartmouth Atlas of Virginia

25 Interview w/Tom Scully, former CMS Administrator (2002) Mayes: Others I’ve interviewed have said that hospitals will cry, cry, cry [about their finances and level of Medicare reimbursement], but that sometimes you have take it with a grain of salt. Scully: Oh, they’re doing great! I’ll tell you, go find me a hospital that hasn’t built a giant new bed-tower in the last few years. They’ve actually slowed down, because the government has phased out Medicare capital (reimbursement)… We used to pay for capital in Medicare; it was a DRG add-on for capital expenditures. Well, if you’re getting 40 percent of your revenues from Medicare and you want to build a new building and Medicare will pay for 40 percent of it, right? Then why not? So what you were getting all through the 1980s was a massive building spree up into the early 1990s and even through the ‘90s, because it was a 10-year phase out [of the DRG add-on for capital]. If you wanted to build a new hospital wing in 1990—even if you didn’t have any patients for it—if you budgeted $100 million, Medicare would write you a check for $40 million! So what do you get? You got a hell of a lot of big new hospital wings, need them or not. This is one of the reasons we’ve had such massive over-capacity… You’d have to be an idiot not to put up a new building every couple of years, because Medicare paid for such a big part of it. That is slowing down now and you’re starting to see the demand catch up on capacity in a lot of markets. * Roemer’s Law: “A hospital bed built is a hospital bed filled.” (behavior is unconscious)

26 Association between # of hospital beds per 1,000 residents (1996) and discharges per 1,000 ( ) among Medicare enrollees in 306 HRRs Source: John Wennberg (2005)

27

28

29 Origins of and Momentum behind Pay for Performance Health Care Policy Increasingly Being Driven by Empiricism: e.g., DSM-III for mental health (1980) DRGs for hospitals (1983) RBRVS/fee schedule for physicians (1992) pay-for-performance (growing rapidly) Health Care Quality: old assumption: shark fin emerging view: bell curve ->

30 Hospital Compare - A quality tool for adults, including people with Medicare Percent of Heart Attack Patients Given Aspirin at Arrival AVERAGE FOR ALL REPORTING HOSPITALS IN THE UNITED STATES 91% AVERAGE FOR ALL REPORTING HOSPITALS IN THE STATE OF VIRGINIA 93% VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM (VCU/MCV)96% Percent of Heart Attack Patients Given Beta Blocker at Discharge AVERAGE FOR ALL REPORTING HOSPITALS IN THE UNITED STATES 85% AVERAGE FOR ALL REPORTING HOSPITALS IN THE STATE OF VIRGINIA 88% VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM (VCU/MCV)98%

31 Origins of and Momentum behind Pay for Performance Growing ability to measure “quality” and “performance”—and the subsequent discovery that they vary more than previously assumed—is contributing to the popularity of “p4p,” because it would allow health plans and employers to do 3 things: (1) pay more to medical providers with the best scores/outcomes (2) encourage the majority of medical providers to improve (3) perhaps pay less to providers with poor scores/outcomes Question: If publishing S.O.L. test scores and “on-time” arrival statistics is considered a good idea for encouraging behavioral change and improvements on the part of schools and airlines to improve their performance, the argument goes, how bad of an idea could it be for medical providers?

32 Potential Negative Implications Depending on how “p4p” is structurally designed, it could be problematic (translation “negative”) for several reasons: (1) Some “waste” that it targets is necessary defensive medicine. (2) It could encourage “gaming” on the part of medical providers. (3) Not all clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are perfect, particularly for older Medicare beneficiaries with multiple chronic conditions; and for some chronic conditions—specific cancers, chronic lung disease, and heart failure—they hardly exist at all. (4) In Medicare, as in many private health plans, patients receive their care in an a la carte fashion, which makes it hard to assign responsibility for performance our outcomes to any one specific provider.

33 Potential Positive Implications Fortunately, existing “p4p” plans tend to only pay more to the best providers. In addition: (1) Providers that already meet a performance standard (e.g., an 80% childhood immunization rate, 100% administration of aspirin to patients who present with cardiac arrest) need only maintain their status quo for bonus payments. (2) The percentage of a physician’s overall revenue at stake is rarely more than 5%-10%. (3) So far, “p4p” plans primarily target the underuse of preventive care, so spending generally increases after implementation. (4) Which can provide hospitals and physicians with additional capital to invest in electronic medical records and other practice improvements.

34 Conclusion “p4p” is growing rapidly (2003) – roughly 35 health plans covering approx. 40 million members (2006) – roughly 80 health plans covering approx. 60 million members “p4p” can generally help to improve the quality of primary care, as well as the care of patients with chronic conditions Medicare…the “800-pound” gorilla of American medicine - “It’s hard to convey how big this is going to be, but it’s going to be big,” says Dr. Mark McClellan, CMS Administrator. - 80% of beneficiaries have 1 chronic condition; 30% have 4+ (this latter group drives almost 80% of Medicare’s total spending)

35 Iglehart, J. K. N Engl J Med 2005;353: Changes in Medicare Payments to Physicians