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The current system, researchers say, financially encourages doctors to do more procedures and is one of the reasons health costs have escalated. The health law required Medicare to gradually factor in quality into payments for hospitals, nursing homes, physicians and most medical providers.

Medicare had already decided that large physician groups -- those with 100 or more doctors, nurses, social workers or other health professionals -- will gain or lose as much as 1 percent of their pay starting in 2015. Those incentives would double to 2 percent the following year under draft regulations Medicare released this month. The proposal also would phase mid-sized physicians groups—those with between 10 and 99 health professionals—into the program in 2016 instead of in 2017. While they would be eligible for bonuses up to 2 percent, they would be shielded from any penalties for that first year.

But the ACA does little to address fragmentation, quality of care, and the sustainability of the financial model for U.S. health care — ho

At the foundation of our approach is a knowledge-management system — an electronic archive of Mayo Clinic-vetted knowledge containing evidence-based protocols, order sets, alerts and care process models

It is alarming to see more than a two-fold variation in health care quality across the country.

Unless trends change significantly in 2013, the key determinants of whether a particular physician will be able to avoid a Medicare pay-for-reporting penalty are his or her specialty and the state in which the doctor practices

Once we understand the rules, we are pretty good at playing by them,” said Lee Hilborne, MD, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The Minuteman plan would streamline billing processes to save on administrative costs and allow providers to work more closely with employers, organizers said. Information about smoking cessation or workers’ weight collected through employer wellness programs is not typically shared with doctors. “Imagine working closely with an employer who can help us gather data and, with employees’ permission, to be able to share that data with their primary care providers,” said Dr. Jeff Lasker, chief executive of the Tufts physician group, New England Quality Care Alliance.

Partners HealthCare last year announced plans to acquire Neighborhood Health Plan, which mostly serves low-income people. Steward Health Care has worked with Fallon Community Health Plan to develop plans offered at reduced prices through a small business cooperative created by the Retailers Association of Massachusetts.

Remember, the best employees are or will become Intelligent, Connected, Health Consumers. They’ll appreciate it if you empower them to make a difference in their own coverage. Give them access to innovative services like Castlight Health. Castlight is a “health care transparency solution” which can tell you, for example, that the same colonoscopy you’ll get in Chicago can cost hundreds of dollars less at a quality hospital a few miles away. Explain to your employees that the money they save can end up in their pocket—and be willing to shar

"Fifteen years ago, pricing was not as important…[but] when the co-pay is coming out of a patient's pocket, they more often want to know what they're paying," said Moshir Jacob, medical director at the Toledo Clinic. The Ohio practice advertises that it offers lower prices than area hospita

Others doubt there has been a structural change. "We haven't done anything in the past three or four years that fundamentally altered the health-care system," said Gerard Anderson of Johns Hopkins University, who was the lead author of the "It's the Prices, Stupid" paper a decade ago. "And everything in Obamacare that tried to control cost was watered down."

The system now offers members a choice: Have your procedure at one of 51 hospitals that agreed to limit what they charge, or have the surgery elsewhere and pay any expenses above $30,000 out of pocket.