alt Hacker NewsThe Medicare “star system” attempts to compensate for this, but somewhat perversely by giving higher reimbursement rates to providers with higher quality. Logically, they should be getting lower rates because they’re more efficient at providing the service. But because the only real incentive is their profit margin, it has to be that way. And of course the star system definitions end up being a constant target of lobbying and stat-gaming.
IIRC this gets gamed by patterns like refusing to readmit patients following complications to hack low readmission rates and preserve higher reimbursement rates? Feels like so much in healthcare where you have a well-intentioned patch trying to solve deep incentive alignment issues and creating more problems.