• Home
  • Practice Focus
    • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
    • Head and Neck
    • Laryngology
    • Otology/Neurotology
    • Pediatric
    • Rhinology
    • Sleep Medicine
    • How I Do It
    • TRIO Best Practices
  • Business of Medicine
    • Health Policy
    • Legal Matters
    • Practice Management
    • Tech Talk
    • AI
  • Literature Reviews
    • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
    • Head and Neck
    • Laryngology
    • Otology/Neurotology
    • Pediatric
    • Rhinology
    • Sleep Medicine
  • Career
    • Medical Education
    • Professional Development
    • Resident Focus
  • ENT Perspectives
    • ENT Expressions
    • Everyday Ethics
    • From TRIO
    • The Great Debate
    • Letter From the Editor
    • Rx: Wellness
    • The Voice
    • Viewpoint
  • TRIO Resources
    • Triological Society
    • The Laryngoscope
    • Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology
    • TRIO Combined Sections Meetings
    • COSM
    • Related Otolaryngology Events
  • Search

Is the Fee-for-Service Physician Payment Model Doomed?

by Thomas R. Collins • March 9, 2015

  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Print-Friendly Version

CORONADO, CALIF.—With the healthcare landscape morphing on a near-daily basis, panelists gathered at the Triological Society Combined Sections Meeting to discuss the merits and disadvantages of the fee-for-service payment model, as well as its role in the future of healthcare in the U.S.

You Might Also Like

  • Hybrid Physician Payment System Can Ensure Quality, Customer Service
  • Alternative Payment Model Promises More Penalty Than Pay
  • What You Need to Know About CMS Changes to the Physician Fee Schedule for 2021
  • Medicare Physician Payment Cut Averted
Explore This Issue
March 2015

Members of the group touched on the importance of preserving their ability to provide patient care, the “outlier” physicians who bend or break rules for profit, and the importance of spreading awareness that a large number of factors contribute to high healthcare costs in the U.S. They tended to agree that at least some form of fee for service will continue to exist, largely because it is a good system when compared with others.

The panel was moderated by Fred Owens, MD, of the Owens Ear Clinic in Texas and incoming president of the Triological Society. Panelists were Sigsbee Duck, MD, of the Memorial Hospital Otolaryngology Clinic in Rock Springs, Wy.; Susan Cordes, MD, of Ukiah Valley Medical Center in Ukiah, Calif.; David Edelstein, MD, chief of the otolaryngology service at Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Institute in New York City; and Michael Setzen, MD, a solo practitioner in Great Neck, N.Y.

Fred Owens, MD

Fred Owens, MD

Dr. Owens said the criticism of physician billing has been growing but that patients often demand the kind of care that they’re given. “[Critics] complain a lot because we order studies,” he said. “But I would contend that it’s going to be very difficult to get patients to let us take care of them without getting studies done to try to make a diagnosis. And we’re probably the leading country in building technology, so technology usually comes first to us and then to other countries.”

Dr. Cordes listed a wide range of benefits of a fee for service system: familiarity, the simplicity of paying for what you get, promoting a physician work ethic, and allowing for physician autonomy and flexibility in lifestyle and income and in the types of procedures and practice they want to perform. “Ultimately, I believe that fee-for-service could actually decrease healthcare costs because it is like the market where, [when] you need something, you have to pay for it,” she said. “If patients have a little skin in the game on everything, then they will be better consumers and make better choices and participate more in that decision, and that could help hold costs down.”

Cost, Volume, Value

Dr. Setzen said he thinks that fee for service that involves quality-based and value-based measures would be a fair and reasonable approach to care. According to Dr. Duck, if appropriate and meaningful quality and value measures were added to fee for service, there would be a method by which to prove that what you’re doing is working. “That’s the big downfall with fee for service, according to all the papers and studies that are published,” he said, adding that most of the articles about why fee for service isn’t a good system are written by non-physicians.

Pages: 1 2 3 | Single Page

Filed Under: Features Tagged With: policyIssue: March 2015

You Might Also Like:

  • Hybrid Physician Payment System Can Ensure Quality, Customer Service
  • Alternative Payment Model Promises More Penalty Than Pay
  • What You Need to Know About CMS Changes to the Physician Fee Schedule for 2021
  • Medicare Physician Payment Cut Averted

The Triological SocietyENTtoday is a publication of The Triological Society.

Polls

Do you use AI-powered scribes for documentation?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Polls Archive

Top Articles for Residents

  • Applications Open for Resident Members of ENTtoday Edit Board
  • How To Provide Helpful Feedback To Residents
  • Call for Resident Bowl Questions
  • New Standardized Otolaryngology Curriculum Launching July 1 Should Be Valuable Resource For Physicians Around The World
  • Do Training Programs Give Otolaryngology Residents the Necessary Tools to Do Productive Research?
  • Popular this Week
  • Most Popular
  • Most Recent
    • The Dramatic Rise in Tongue Tie and Lip Tie Treatment

    • Rating Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Severity: How Do Two Common Instruments Compare?

    • Keeping Watch for Skin Cancers on the Head and Neck

    • Is Middle Ear Pressure Affected by Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Use?

    • Excitement Around Gene Therapy for Hearing Restoration

    • The Dramatic Rise in Tongue Tie and Lip Tie Treatment

    • Rating Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Severity: How Do Two Common Instruments Compare?

    • Is Middle Ear Pressure Affected by Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Use?

    • Otolaryngologists Are Still Debating the Effectiveness of Tongue Tie Treatment

    • Complications for When Physicians Change a Maiden Name

    • The Importance of Time Away
    • Endoscopic Ear Surgery: Advancements and Adoption Challenges 
    • Reflections from a Past President of the Triological Society
    • ENT Surgeons Explore the Benefits and Challenges of AI-Powered Scribes: Revolutionizing Documentation in Healthcare
    • How To: Open Expansion Laryngoplasty for Combined Glottic and Subglottic Stenosis

Follow Us

  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • The Triological Society
  • The Laryngoscope
  • Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Cookies

Wiley

Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies. ISSN 1559-4939