Navigating payer heterogeneity in the United States: lessons for primary care
Winston Liaw 1 , Daniel McCorry 2 3 , Andrew Bazemore 1
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
1 Robert Graham Center, Northwest, Washington, DC, USA
2 Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA
3 Current address: McLeod Regional Medical Centre, Florence, SC, USA
Correspondence to: Winston Liaw, 1133 Connecticut Avenue, NW; Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20036, USA. Email: wliaw@aafp.org
Journal of Primary Health Care 9(3) 200-203 https://doi.org/10.1071/HC17024
Published: 15 August 2017
Journal Compilation © Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners 2017.
This is an open access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Abstract
With most providers accepting private and public funding, the US exemplifies hybridization, which results in both systemic benefits and harms. While this practice stimulates innovation, encourages practices to be efficient, and increases choice, it has also been linked to gaps in patient safety and overtreatment. We propose three lessons from the US for navigating a public and private system: hybridization allows for innovation; hybridization leads to administrative complexity; and if the costs of participation outweigh the benefits, practices may undergo dehybridization.
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