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An Article On Physician Compensation Essay

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Physician Compensation Article Review
This paper contains a critical analysis of an article on physician compensation practices. It will summarize the article including the author 's approach and conclusions, and it will evaluate the article 's strengths, weaknesses, and validity.
Article Summary
In the article "Physician Compensation: Are Physicians Paid to Promote Health and Well-Being?" author William Martin argues the need to align physician compensation with the interests of patients. Martin, an associate professor at DePaul University, establishes a case that "physician compensation must be designed in a way that not only benefits financial interests of physicians but also the health status/quality of life of patients. (Martin, 2015)."
Martin relays statistics from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services that physicians only account for 21.2% of the total health care spending, yet decisions physicians make in their practice make up the vast majority of health care spending based on ordering and referrals. Health care spending impacts health insurance premiums provided by employers and dollars spent by the U.S. government on Medicare, Medicaid, the Veterans Administration and the federal/state correctional system.
Four models of compensation are described: fee-for-service, capitation, hybrid and fee-for-value. Under the fee-for-service model, physicians are paid for productivity, which encourages physicians to see more patients and perform more procedures

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