ACOG Committee Opinion No. 744 Summary: Value-Based Payments in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Abstract

Unsustainable health care costs combined with suboptimal patient outcomes have led health policy experts and payers to consider value-based payment or alternative payment models. Replacing fee-for-service reimbursement, these models link payment to value by rewarding efforts to enhance the quality of care at similar or reduced costs. Although many of the models employed to date have focused on primary care, management of chronic disease in the Medicare population, and episodes of care for common procedures, models for primary and specialty care of women are in the early stages of development. As specialists in women's health, obstetrician-gynecologists need to be actively engaged in this fundamental shift in the payment and delivery system.