Posted by
Arik on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 6:33:08 PM
Today, at one of his signature pre-planned, staged "town hall meetings," in front o a bunch of "willing" seniors from the AARP, Our Commutard-in-Cheese had
this to say:
"We also want to start rewarding doctors for quality, not just the quantity of care that they provide. Instead of rewarding them for how many procedures they perform or how many tests they order, we'll bundle payments so providers aren't paid for every treatment they offer when they chronic -- to a patient with a chronic condition like diabetes, but instead are paid for how are they managing that disease overall."
Now, call me crazy, but I think what he's saying is that we should be paying doctors on the results of their work, rather than the process of treatment. Call it Outcome Based Reimbursement if you like. Or, as I prefer, Merit Based Pay.
Interesting.
I have an idea.
An EEEEVIL idea.
Let's take this plan and transplant it. Instead of paying teachers on how many students they have, or how many students they graduate, let's pay them on how many of their students can read, and how many can do simple math problems. Merit Based Pay. Exactly what the Republicans have been arguing for for years.
Now, I hear the caterwauling: But, Arik, some kids don't do their homework, some kids don't have parental support, some kids are just plain dumb. You can't pay a teacher based on the work their students are willing to do.
To this I respond like so: Some patients refuse to take their pills. Some patients refuse to see a doctor until their problems are so far advanced it is impossible to save them. Some people just can't be helped. Medicine is still very much an ART, despite all of its scientific advances of the past century or so.
And, just curious: We can't objectively test schoolchildren with standardized tests without cries of racism, elitism, etc, etc, etc. This leads to the question:
Who is going to judge what is a successful outcome, and what is not?
King Beeyotch Obuttma, on his throne in Washington, just when you think his ideas can't get any more idiotic, comes up with a new one to top it. If it weren't happening here, we'd all sit back and laugh, as I expect most of the rest of the world is now laughing at us for electing such a moron.