By THCB Staff

The Century Foundation announced this week the creation of a working group to create a blueprint for Medicare reform.

Maggie Mahar, award winning journalist, author of the HealthBeatBlog and regular THCB contributor, will direct the group of prominent physicians and health care experts.

Bob Wachter, another regular THCB contributor, UCSF physician and author of Wachter’s World, is also part of the eight-member working group.

The group’s blueprint will be based on recommendations in the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s 2007 and 2008 reports. Among the issues the group will review are:

• Revising Medicare’s physician fee schedule to pay more for primary care, palliative care, and co-ordination and management of chronic diseases.

• Rethinking Medicare’s fee-for-service system to reward doctors for quality, not volume.

• Creating an independent Comparative Effectiveness Institute that reviews head-to-head testing of drugs, devices, and procedures to ensure that they are effective.

• Identifying and rewarding hospitals that provide better outcomes and higher patient satisfaction at a lower cost while helping other hospitals meet benchmarks.