Most physicians employed in group practices owned by health systems are paid primarily based on the volume of care they provide, according to findings published in JAMA Health Forum. In these practices, volume-based compensation was the most common type of base pay for more than 80% of primary care physicians and for more than 90% of specialists. “The results of this cross-sectional study suggest that PCPs and specialists despite receiving value-based reimbursement incentives from payers, the compensation of health system PCPs and specialists was dominated by volume-based incentives designed to maximize health systems revenue,” they conclude. (JAMA Health Forum; RAND announcement)

In this AHealthcareZ video, Dr. Eric Bricker holds forth on the above RAND study that found that physician compensation was “dominated by volume-based incentives designed to maximize health systems revenue.” (YouTube)

The pandemic may have disrupted other aspects of health care, “but it hasn’t changed the way hospitals, doctors, drug companies and other health care firms continue to charge employer health plans — and workers — whatever they want,” Axios reports. Annual per-person spending growth for workplace health insurance has exceeded the spending growth among Medicare and Medicaid patients in nine of the past 13 years. “The big honking problem is the prices that are being paid in the commercial sector,” Mark Miller, the former head of the MedPAC. (Axios)

ACO success requires providers to collaborate across the continuum of care, according to research published in Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. It found that an ACO with partners from all three care continuum stages—pre-acute, acute and post-acute—could improve patient experience quality by 5.3% and reduce the 30-day readmission rate by 2.9%. However, it’s a long-term investment: The per patient expense goes up 12% the first year. The research shows that health care is a system, not individual parts, explains lead author Aravind Chandrasekaran, professor of operations at Fisher College of Business. If you want good health care, it’s more than just having great doctors. It means excellence and collaboration across all three aspects of that continuum of care. (RevCycle Intelligence; Manufacturing & Service Operations Management; announcement)

Primary care providers appear to have a knack for convincing patients to exercise. A systematic review and meta-analysis with data from more than 16,000 patients suggest physical activity interventions delivered or prompted by health professionals in primary care was associated with a statistically significant increase in moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity by an average of 14 minutes per week. “Physical activity interventions delivered by health professionals in primary care settings appear effective in increasing participation in physical activity as measured by self-report and reducing weight in adults,” according to the researchers writing in The BMJ. (Endocrinology Network; BMJ)