Posted by Michael Wonder on 03 Nov 2020
Getting the price right: how some countries control spending in a fee for service system
2 November 2020 - Although the US has the highest health care prices in the world, the specific mechanisms commonly used by other countries to set and update prices are often overlooked, with a tendency to favour strategies such as reducing the use of fee-for-service reimbursement.
Comparing policies in three high income countries (France, Germany and Japan), we describe how payers and physicians engage in structured fee negotiations and standardise prices in systems where fee-for-service is the main model of outpatient physician reimbursement.
The parties involved, the frequency of fee schedule updates, and the scope of the negotiations vary, but all three countries attempt to balance the interests of payers with those of physician associations.
