Health care reforms emphasize quality, outcomes and research

SAN DIEGO — The Obama administration's health care reforms and funding initiatives are aimed at improving outcomes and quality through use of health care information technology, quality incentives and research, a policy expert said here.

William L. Rich III

"You're going to see a long-term move for financially rewarding physicians for the provision of high volume and paying for the efficient provision of evidence-based effective but efficient care," William L. Rich III, MD, said at the American Glaucoma Society meeting.

Federal health policy will place strong emphasis on outcomes measures, with a 10-year trend of increased payments for surgical and office-based procedures but significant decreases for diagnostic testing, Dr. Rich said.

The Obama stimulus package includes $1.1 billion for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services. The increased funding may encourage head-to-head clinical trials such as the ongoing Comparison of Age-Related Macular Degeneration Treatments Trials. Promoting this kind of research should be on the "to-do list" of the AGS, Dr. Rich said.

The stimulus also includes a $41,000 per-physician bonus for adopting electronic health records starting in 2011; physicians who adopted electronic records earlier get $44,000, he said.

Dr. Rich is medical director of health policy for the American Academy of Ophthalmology.