The perennial "Doc Fix" debate is nearing an end.  On April 14th, the Senate voted overwhelmingly (92-8) to repeal the sustainable growth rate (SGR) and implement a new payment model for physicians participating in Medicare. The House approved the bill last month with an unusually high degree of bipartisanship. President Obama has said he would sign the legislation.

The repeal of SGR accomplishes two critical things.  First, it allows for virtually no increase in Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) rates over the next 10 years. Second, it puts into place opportunities and incentives for physicians to enter into value based payment models such as Bundled Payments, PCMH and Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) if they are willing to abide by quality measures and accept risk. 

Originally featured on wanthealthcarellc.com 

In case you missed it, last month was the Second Annual Transparency Summit in Washington, a fabulous wonk sprint of two and a half days on all things transparent and emergent in health care transformation. While these conferences are always biased toward the true believers of the concept in the conference title, I left with a number of insights:

• Transparency of what, and to whom?  While we tend to think of transparency as consumer information, just as critical is transparency of measurement and judgment for providers.   

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