Time on Obama’s Side in Death Knell for Health Fee-for-Service

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Killing off the old way of paying for U.S. health care, as it turns out, won’t require new legislation, executive orders or a raft of regulations. All the Obama administration needs is time.

In two years, the government wants 30 percent of payments from Medicare going to doctors and hospitals participating in programs that force them to work together, worry about whether patients actually get better, and in some cases, pay penalties if they fail. By 2019, the fraction would rise to 50 percent of payments under Medicare, which covers about 50 million elderly and disabled people.