Human Resources-Benefits - Essay Example

There have been many efforts to implement pay-for-performance programs in the health care industry ever since 2003. However, these incentive systems in the past either focused on outcome measures or process measures in healthcare. While the outcome measures rewarded health care providers based on the health outcomes of patients the process measures assessment took into account whether the hospitals have followed the recommended clinical guidelines. As such, both these measures had their own drawbacks.

On the other hand, the advantage of HIVBP is that it follows a mixture of both outcome and process measures. The author also advocates that the salient feature of HIVBP is that it rewards hospitals based on improvements upon their past performance. As a result, the hospitals need to improve the quality of their healthcare to compete against themselves rather than against their competitors. One of the major drawbacks of the previously employed outcomes measures was that it failed to accommodate such acute health care centers where patients with least chances of survival were treated.

As a result, mortality rates in such hospitals grew higher than hospitals that treat comparatively healthy patients. Thus, the incentive system of rewarding hospitals based on outcome measures proved to be unfair and the introduction of HIVBP could effectively address these drawbacks of earlier reward systems in healthcare. Similarly, HIVBP also seeks to reward hospitals based on process measures such as adherence to certain standard practices of healthcare. The HIVBP also has provisions to bring about timely revisions to its standards by continually adding more of relevant process measures assessment indicators.

However, the HIVBP Medicare has its own limitations too. As HIVBP incentive system rewards both achievement and improvement it is easier for high performing hospitals with lots of resources to get rewarded compared to low performing hospitals that lack both resources and infrastructural facilities. There is also the danger of hospitals turning their face away from hard-to-treat patients. In spite of these shortcomings, the author argues that pay-for-performance programs will reward quality over quantity and that the current Medicare program (HIVBP) is competent enough to address most of the shortcomings of the previous incentive systems in the healthcare system of the nation.

Marcus’ article on the concept of pay-for-performance has larger implications on the healthcare benefits of the workforce of the nation. It is sure that the passage of the Affordable Care Act would bring about a radical restructuring of employer-sponsored health benefits in the United States. Researchers such as Singhal, Stueland & Ungerman (2011, p. 2) predict that “overall, 30 percent of employers will definitely or probably stop offering ESI in the years after 2014.” The authors also pinpoint that Employer Sponsored Health Insurance will pave way for other benefit offerings or higher salaries which will be more beneficial for the employers.

The researchers are of the opinion that most of the employees will continue their jobs even if the employer stops providing ESI. On the other hand, every employee will be seeking for