THURSDAY, April 12, 2007 (HealthDay News) -- Almost 85 percent of states plan to have pay-for-performance programs for health-care providers within five years, says a U.S. study that also found that most current programs focus on women's, children's and adolescents' health issues.
The nationwide survey of state Medicaid programs was released Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund, a private organization working toward a high-performance health system in the United States.
"Medicaid is a major source of funding of health care in every state and, therefore, has a significant influence on the health care system," study co-author Thomas Hartman said in a prepared statement. "But each state operates its program independently of the others. We thought it would be helpful to provide a detailed snapshot of what is taking place around the nation so that state officials have solid information on which to base decisions about pay-for-performance."
Hartman is vice president for health care quality improvement at IPRO, a not-for-profit quality evaluation and improvement organization.
Hartman and his colleagues identified several trends:
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