Working Toward True Health Care Payment Reform to Ensure Our Health Care System Serves Families and Patients

The way the US pays for health care is a major driver of unaffordable, low-quality care and poor health for our nation’s families and individuals. Despite a decade of payment reform, volume-based payment remains the predominant mechanism for payment in the US health care system. This paper, the 5th in the People First Care Initiative, unveils the promise of payment reform efforts in driving toward affordable quality care and improved population health when it is no longer tethered to fee-for-service economics.