NEWS FLASH

IPAB Will Encourage Providers To Adopt More Efficient Practices | Henry Aaron argues that the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) won’t just reduce provider reimbursement rates — it will encourage providers to adopt new, more efficient, health care delivery models. “The law specifically authorizes the advisory board, among other things, to recommend changes in relative payments under Medicare for different forms of care,” he writes today in Politico. Such changes don’t ration care. Physicians would remain free to practice medicine as they wish. But changes in financial incentives can nudge both providers and patients to pay attention to the findings of research a bit sooner than they might otherwise.”