Introduction
Electronic services can be used to provide a wide range of remote services, including patient care and education, and monitoring. Telehealth is a revolutionary technology that could reform and enhance the healthcare system by lowering costs, improving quality, and increasing patient satisfaction. During the recent COVID-19 epidemic, which affected both privately insured and Medicare beneficiaries, patients increasingly received healthcare treatments from providers not situated near their doctors. There were restrictions on who may perform and where they could be reimbursed before the pandemic. Due to COVID-19, Congress and the CMS enhanced traditional Medicare’s coverage of telehealth services to make medical treatment more accessible and reduce coronavirus exposure in healthcare settings. Without legislative action, Medicare’s telehealth coverage will revert to its pre-pandemic levels when the public health emergency expires.
A New Contribution-Based Incentive Model (CBI)
This paper suggests a new physician compensation model that rewards productivity, quality, and community involvement. The CBI Model combines a secure base salary with configurable core incentives to give physicians more career flexibility. The CBI model basically works towards motivating the physicians based on their outcomes and quality and offers great career autonomy. The model also steers organizational stewardship and the degree of clinical and other related activities in physician fields to another level.
A Flexible Formula Aligns Disparate Interests
Salary-based compensation schemes will become increasingly popular in the healthcare industry in the wake of the pandemic as physicians seek a more stable and predictable source of income. A modest yet significant part of total compensation is the goal of this model’s base wage (Kwon & Kim, 2022). The starting wage of a doctor is indeed higher than that of an entry-level employee. However, physicians can still expect to see a rise in their pay by meeting or exceeding their employers’ vision, strategic direction, and specific goals. A modest base wage is a safety net for physicians, as it reduces the possibility of burnout or other adverse effects of financial strain. The performance will improve if incentive points are allocated openly and transparently.
Many conditions have to be met before doctors can participate in the bonus structure, including regular clinical activity and productivity in line with the physician’s base salary (on a fair market value basis). Second is quality thresholds with outcomes set by the organization, and third is agreed-upon community service efforts (Brousselle et al., 2020). It is possible to influence physician behavior by varying financing for each “Core Incentive” based on the business’s goals, needs, and purposes.
Increased Productivity Leads to an Increase in Revenue
In business, productivity and revenue go directly proportionally in different aspects. Revenue generation goes alongside the rate of productivity in most cases. Work relative value units are the units used to gauge physician productivity at the moment (wRVUs) (Mehrotra et al., 2020). Productivity-based incentive compensation can be provided to avoid anti-cooperative behavior and over-utilization (a suitable percentage of base pay, incentives, or compensation benchmarks. It is, therefore, evident that productivity depends directly on incentives given to employees.
Quality Measures Give Top Priority to Patient Treatment
Commercial and government payers have developed quality standards to recompense providers for their services. Measures used to evaluate healthcare practitioners include documented diagnosis and communication with patients, treatment and pain/symptom control, readmissions, and preventative screening. It’s important to note that while these measurements can be used as a starting point for excellent outcomes, they need to be tailored to each patient’s specific needs. With consultation from suitable stakeholders and physician practice executives, businesses are encouraged to develop unique Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Citizenship Enhances a Modern, Patient-Centric, and Integrated Brand
The third component is patient and brand loyalty and market expansion.
Advocate for Patient Satisfaction Metrics; as a result, Ganey, an independent research firm, remains a leading expert in this field. Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS), using this method, we suggest awarding points to organizations based on survey results and other satisfaction criteria. Affirmatively adopting new technology, physicians should be rewarded for researching and using innovative technologies that improve patient care and efficiency. Treatment outside of traditional healthcare facilities will be in high demand post-pandemic, and virtual health services will be critical in meeting these demands (Smith et al., 2020). It is feasible to track and measure telemedicine education, coaching, and application metrics. This element may help digital health and other cutting-edge technology.
Office policies and procedures and incentive programs can promote adherence to organizational and clinical standards and procedures. Both the doctor and the firm will benefit when these actions are adopted.
Promote an organization’s brand through administrative roles and marketing Leaders in the CBI Model, which involves the compensation of leadership. Participation in quality improvement committees or medical supply formulary boards can also be a leadership activity. Other possible leadership activities include public speaking and research publications and service on administrative boards, and media/public appearances (Smith et al., 2020). With an objective, well-defined technique, physicians and organizations can create trust in each other. The CBI Model’s success can be attributed to a structure that mandates measurable activities consistently communicated to participating general practitioners openly and transparently. Instilling a sense of fairness and healthy rivalry among peers is made possible thanks to the transparency of the process. In each Core Incentive, physicians are classified into quartiles based on their performance. For the highest performers, it is suggested that the payouts for each quartile be weighted. There is a more significant release of Core Incentive Funding since more physicians are eligible for Core Incentive payouts. To maximize the incentives, physicians are encouraged to mobilize participation among their colleagues.
Conclusion
In summary, the CBI Model’s alignment models and proposed amendments to the AKS and Stark laws complement and reinforce the model’s timeliness while remaining true to its essential principles. The model is a vital feature when it comes to the motivation of the general service providers. Following the COVID-19 outbreak, healthcare practitioners have been forced to reconsider the value of cradle-to-grave care, a strategy that relies on cutting-edge technology to offer appropriate care at the appropriate time and in a suitable location.
References
Brousselle, A., Brunet‐Jailly, E., Kennedy, C., Phillips, S. D., Quigley, K., & Roberts, A. (2020). Beyond COVID‐19: Five commentaries on reimagining governance for future crises and resilience. Canadian Public Administration, 63(3), 369–408. Web.
Kwon, S., & Kim, E. (2022). Sustainable health financing for COVID-19 preparedness and response in Asia and the Pacific.Asian Economic Policy Review, 17(1), 140-156. Web.
Lexa, F. J., & Lexa, F. J. (2020). Private Equity–backed hospital investments and the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 17(8), 1049–1052. Web.
Mehrotra, A., Wang, B., & Snyder, G. (2020). Telemedicine: What should the post-pandemic regulatory and payment landscape look like? The Commonwealth Fund.
Smith, A. C., Thomas, E., Snoswell, C. L., Haydon, H., Mehrotra, A., Clemensen, J., & Caffery, L. J. (2020). Telehealth for global emergencies: Implications for corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, 26(5), 309–313. Web.