Alternative Quality Contract

I saw this report in the Boston Business Journal, Beth Israel docs choose 'global payments'. "The Beth Israel Deaconess Physician Organization has become the largest doctors’ group to sign on to a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts contract that pays doctors per patient, not per procedure. The move is a signal that so-called ‘global payments’, a system designed to rewards doctors for keeping patients healthy and reducing the number of medical procedures, is gaining traction among Massachusetts doctors."

I hadn't heard of Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA's Alternative Quality Contract .

Here's an article on it in Physicians Practice from April 2009, Global Capitation — It’s Baaaack….

I do think the fee for service model is flawed but don't know enough about health care economics to know about this. A fixed fee per patient would incent doctors to withhold costly treatments though the AQC apparently accounts for this. Anyone in such a plan?