Lies & statistics: What really makes a healthcare system successful?
In a recent blog post on the American College of Cardiology’s ACC in Touch Blog, David May, MD, PhD, FACC, weighs in on a Health Affairs article that concluded, “Europe’s strong primary care systems are linked to better population health but also to higher health spending.” May takes aim at the metrics used to come to this conclusion and offers his insight about healthcare delivery in America and around the world.
“I would speculate that incentivizing all providers to deliver first contact, broadly based care for large segments of the population is the key, the level of training of the provider notwithstanding,” he writes. “Why not a simple tweak of the current, much aligned fee for service payment system, providing an incentive to function as a patient's principal physician, moving us in that direction?”
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