Hormonizing Medicare Payment Policy with the Private Sector

Peter Lee, JD, Executive Director of National Health Policy for the Pacific Business Group on Health, along with Bob Berenson, MD of the Urban Institute and John Tooker, MD, MBA of the American College of Physicians recently published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine describing the importance of harmonizing Medicare payment policies with those in the private sector. While Medicare is the country's largest purchaser of health care, it accounts for only 19% of total health spending. The authors note that in order to achieve a higher-value system overall, Medicare needs to help lead the charge in changing how all public and private payers reimburse for services. To achieve this, four recommendations are made and these, along with the rest of the article, can be found by clicking here.