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Paying doctors for every procedure they perform creates a financial incentive for overtreatment and contributes to the endless rise in health-care costs. Nobody’s been able to figure out what to do about it on a system-wide level, but Massachusetts may give it a shot.

A state commission created to look at health-care payment is likely to recommend replacing fee-for-service with a system that would use a single payment to cover most of a person’s care for an entire year, the Boston Globe reports.

This sounds a lot like what was tried in the 1990s under the name “capitation,” and proved widely unpopular. The Globe says the commission is looking to avoid some of the pitfalls that bedeviled the earlier efforts, for example by paying doctors more for caring for sicker patients and possibly retaining fee-for-service payments for especially complicated procedures.

These changes, if they happen at all, aren’t going to happen overnight. They would require a pretty widespread restructuring of the way doctors and hospitals operate, which would likely take years. Still, there is some urgency in the state, where a recent push to increase the number of people with health insurance has only added to the rise in health costs.

Bonus Payment: Read our post from earlier this year on payment for “episodes of care,” a possible middle road between fee-for-service and capitation.

Map via Wikimedia Commons

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Massachusetts Looks to Change the Way Doctors Are Paid