PPO offers patient, physician incentives

Patients receive rebates on co-payments only if their doctors participate in the Oklahoma plan.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. Nov. 15, 2004.

In a new twist on pay-for-performance plans, Physician Direct, an Oklahoma City-based preferred provider organization, has rolled out a plan that offers financial incentives to both physicians and patients.

The PPO, which has 4,800 physicians and 120 hospitals in Oklahoma, pays doctors up to 30% more for evaluation and management services and 50% more for procedures and surgeries if they participate in its ePPO pay-for-performance program. To receive the higher fees, physicians must agree to follow evidence-based guidelines posted on the Web site of HealthGate Data Corp., Burlington, Mass. The guidelines were developed by Duke University Medical Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Emory University's Woodruff Health Sciences Center and Oregon Health & Science University.

Doctors also must authorize Physician Direct to prescribe "information therapy" to patients on their behalf. Information therapy is defined as Physician Direct mailing a letter directing patients to go to certain Web links to access information relevant specifically to their diagnoses. That will help improve patient-physician communication and patient compliance with treatment plans, said Jeff Greene, CEO of CompOne Services Ltd., a physician billing services and practice management company in Oklahoma City. It owns ePPO, which is both a product and a company.