Relentless Health Value

If you are a forward-thinking specialist right now, alarm bells may be going off, given COVID and/or the prospect of another COVID-style pandemic. Also, all of the capitated and advanced PCP (primary care provider) practices popping up. Also, virtual care models. FFS is a cushy status quo revenue model until it isn’t. One underappreciated point might be that FFS is not only a revenue/payment model. It’s also a business model. And as a business model, FFS very much drives how practices structure themselves to realize that FFS revenue. Consider that to earn a fee for a service, someone (a human person) has to physically do the service. So, all FFS-style businesses have an inherent incentive to add labor and not use technology in any way that actually reduces the amount of billable human hours involved in providing care to patients. But if that top-line revenue line goes down—wow!—you’ll find yourself as many did with way too many employees. An FFS business model has zero flexibility when it comes to revenue tha