Aligning Incentives in Health Care-Physician Practice and Health System Partnership

摘要

Background The key to successfully aligning hospitals and physicians is financial integration and joint incentives for academic, quality, and clinical productivity. Many physician practices and health systems are moving toward closer integration, but mainly through consolidation and employment strategies. Questions/purposes We describe a fully integrated physician and hospital relationship including an overview of an aligned funds flow process that affords the department support for clinical services and teaching, research, and administrative activity. We also describe a physician compensation model that provides incentive not only for increased clinical performance, but also quality and academic objectives. Methods The content of this article was acquired through our own experience in managing-the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania Health System including the health system's funds flow process. Based on input from both health system leaders and the faculty, the department's compensation plan was totally redesigned to create a line-of-sight plan that credits clinical performance and academic productivity.