Amol S. Navathe and Harald Schmidt are assistant professors of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
It’s time to fix payment models that don’t address Covid-19’s disproportionate impact on racial and ethnic minorities and don’t align with broader efforts to make health care fair. Research shows that doctors are more likely to choose procedures and treatments that are more profitable for them, whether these are better for patients or not.
There are also so-called value-based payment reforms, under which physician groups and hospitals get bonuses if patients use less health care overall but still improve their health. [I]t also means that sicker patients who need more care or those who face other challenges, like not having a caregiver at home, become economically unattractive to hospitals. That’s why fewer value-based initiatives have been taken up in communities that are home to more people of color or are worse off economically. Read the Op-Ed HERE.