NYC Health & Hospitals physicians cite unrealistic quality goals

The doctors staffing New York City’s public hospitals stand to lose out on tens of thousands of dollars in incentive payments because of new standards they say are too high.

As part of the doctors’ most recent contract with NYC Health & Hospitals, agreed to last summer, 5% of physicians’ payments from the municipal hospital system are tied to quality.

The health system has physician services agreements through 2020 with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NYU School of Medicine and Physician Affiliate Group of New York to staff many of its hospitals and clinics.

“I don’t think anything about it is unfair in terms of the concept,” said Dr. Andrew Brotman, who leads NYU Langone’s faculty group practice and oversees its relationship with NYC Health & Hospitals. “It’s the specific implementation.”

He cited as an example the way the system has sought to reach regional or national averages on patient satisfaction scores, regardless of whether a given facility’s baseline is far below those levels. He said such unrealistic goals could cost NYU doctors about $8 million if none of the benchmarks are met. That could translate into up to $20,000 in unearned incentives to individual physicians. He said some measures are attainable and others could be reached in future years.