UnitedHealth testing new healthcare system

What would happen if doctors were rewarded based on the quality of care they gave instead of how many patients and tests they performed? UnitedHealth Group is working with IBM to test out this new policy. They've joined forces with a seven medical groups, who employees 26 doctors and has approximately 7,000 patients. UnitedHealth Care will reward the doctors based on the quality of service they provide, which will be shown by closely monitoring the patients progress.

UnitedHealth hopes this system will bring down medical costs while making people healthier. Doctors will save money on medical costs due to the close monitoring of patients, which will result in fewer hospitalizations in addition to fewer emergency room visits. This test will run through 2011. For more information, read the article at the New York Times.