Under fee-for-service payment, which aspect is NOT directly incentivized?

• A. Patient outcomes
• B. Volume of services
• C. Reimbursement based on services performed
• D. Billing for tests and procedures

Answer: (A)

Fee-for-service payment rewards the delivery and billing of individual services. Reimbursement comes for each service performed, so providers have an incentive to increase the number of services, tests, and procedures they perform and bill for. While patient outcomes may improve in some cases, they are not directly tied to payment in this model, so outcomes aren’t incentivized. This is why the aspect not directly incentivized is patient outcomes.