On September 21, 2006, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report evaluating the institution of a pay-for-performance program within Medicare. The report, "Rewarding Provider Performance: Aligning Incentives in Medicine," is the third in a series on improving the quality of health care. The authors conclude that the Medicare payment system needs to revise its incentives to ensure that high-quality and patient-centered care is delivered efficiently. They recommend pay-for-performance incentives, which reward providers for delivering high quality care, as a means of speeding the process of implementing best practices.
In a new audio interview on The New England Journal of Medicine Web site, two members of the IOM committee, Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis, Ph.D., and Elliott Fisher, M.D., M.P.H., professor of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School, discuss the findings and the value of pay-for-performance.