"Payment reform has the best chance of achieving quality improvements and cost reductions for the U.S. health care system, and the federal government needs to align its public health care programs with innovations created in the private market, health insurers said at a conference Oct. 25 sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.... [N]ew programs undertaken by some Blue Cross Blue Shield [plans] move away from traditional fee-for-service reimbursements to providers. The fee-for-service payment system, which is used in Medicare, is widely criticized as creating incentives for high volumes of medical services that have led to unsustainable cost increases and uncoordinated care and do not always improve health care quality."

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