P4P: Implications for patients

Dr. Wes:

Dear Mr. and Ms. Patient,

I regret to inform you that I will be spending less time focusing on your heart problem because I have decided to focus on the heart and medical problems that Medicare deems important to assure I get paid. They call this initiative “Pay for Performance (P4P).” . . .

. . . So, dear patient, I’m sorry if you have pericarditis or heart block. I’m gonna need to focus on my heart attack and heart failure patients a bit more to make sure my office staff can still return your calls.