Some Kansas doctors will soon be participating in a massive new effort by the Obama administration to improve the nation’s healthcare system. Jim McLean of the KHI News Service has the details.
In today’s healthcare system doctors are rewarded for seeing as many patients as they can.
The $700 million “transforming clinical practice initiative” is aimed at reversing that, so quality of care is rewarded over volume.
Jerry Slaughter, director of the Kansas Medical Society, says the initiative will give about 1,000 of his members a chance to get out in front of some big changes in the healthcare system.
“This is just the beginning of a fundamental transformation of how everybody in the health care system is going to be paid in the future," he says.
The Kansas doctors will be part of a six-state “transformation network” headed by the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative and funded by a $32 million federal innovation grant.
The network also includes Georgia, Nebraska, Oklahoma and South Dakota.