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In U.S. health insurance, a preferred provider organization (PPO), sometimes referred to as a participating provider organization or preferred provider option, is a managed care organization of medical doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers who have agreed with an insurer or a third-party administrator to provide health care at ...
Before the 1992 implementation of the Medicare fee schedule, physician payments were made under the "usual, customary and reasonable" payment model (a "charge-based" payment system). Physician services were largely considered to be misvalued under this system, with evaluation and management services being undervalued and procedures overvalued ...
However, "in the private fee-for-service context, the loss of specialist income is a powerful barrier to e-referral, a barrier that might be overcome if health plans compensated specialists for the time spent handling e-referrals." [20] In Canada, the proportion of services billed under FFS from 1990 to 2010 shifted substantially. [21]
Resource-based relative value scale (RBRVS) is a schema used to determine how much money medical providers should be paid. It is partially used by Medicare in the United States and by nearly all health maintenance organizations (HMOs).
Provider revenues are fixed, and each enrolled patient makes a claim against the full resources of the provider. In exchange for the fixed payment, physicians essentially become the enrolled clients' insurers, who resolve their patients' claims at the point of care and assume the responsibility for their unknown future health care costs.
The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989 enacted a Medicare fee schedule, and as of 2010 about 7,000 distinct physician services were listed. [2] The services are classified under a nomenclature based on the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) to which the American Medical Association holds intellectual property rights. [ 2 ]
For dentists, the American Dental Association defines a usual and customary fee as "the fee an individual dentist most frequently charges for a specific dental procedure independent of any contractual agreement. It is always appropriate to modify the fee based on the nature and severity of the condition being treated and by any medical or ...
The earliest form of HMOs can be seen in a number of "prepaid health plans". In 1910, the Western Clinic in Tacoma, Washington offered lumber mill owners and their employees certain medical services from its providers for a premium of $0.50 per member per month. This is considered by some to be the first example of an HMO.