Medicare physician payment reform: a view from the field.
On Jan. 1, 1992, a major revision process was initiated to change the method by which the Medicare program pays for physician and other professional services. The changes, to be phased in over a five-year period, included payment on the basis of a resource-based relative value scale (RBRVS) and prospective global budgeting for all physician and other professional service payments. Before and shortly after the reform process began, many predicted that far-reaching changes in physician practice would occur as a result. The findings of a survey of physicians in California on the effects that Medicare physician payment reforms had on their practices during 1992 indicate that these predictions may have been exaggerated.
Hughes
K E
KE
Blue Shield of California, San Francisco.
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002140:California; D004470:Economics, Medical; D007182:Income / Q000639:trends; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D016345:Medicare Part B / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010820:Physicians; D011216:Practice Management, Medical / Q000191:economics; D015895:Relative Value Scales; D013038:Specialization; D014481:United States