Now if you want to criticize Michele Bachmann . . .

Here's an opportunity. "Pay-for-performance" for physicians is not the kind of health care reform that ought to be encouraged. From a Bachmann press release.

(Washington, D.C.) - Congresswoman Michele Bachmann congratulated Fairview Northland Regional Hospital on being named one of the top performers in a groundbreaking Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Premier Inc. pay-for-performance project that rewards hospitals for delivering
higher quality care in five clinical areas. Fairview Princeton Clinic and Fairview Lakes Medical Center in Wyoming will both receive bonuses.

This is a missed opportunity to educate the public about pay-for-performance, which at its basic level is simply a cost management tool for managed care providers. It’s a further case of bureaucrats inserting themselves in the patient/doctor relationship. It’s substitution of one-size fits most medical care for individualized patient care. Most importantly, it does nothing to reduce the cost of care or improve the health of Americans.

More to come, but while the staff of Fairview may well be deserving of obligatory congressional pat on the back, this trend in health care deserves the other side of the hand.