Since the inception of the DRG program in 1982, hospitals have been trying to find a way to motivate the physicians on their staffs to work with them to lower expenses by sharing savings generated. These 'gainsharing' notions had been virtually precluded to them going back as far as a Paracelsus hospital company program in 1983, and then in more modern iterations, by virtue of the OIG's Special Advisory Bulletin on
Gainsharing Arrangements in 1999. Although the OIG approved one gainsharing program 18 months after the Bulletin (see discussion in Alice Gosfield's article on "
Making Quality Happen: In Search of Legal Weightlessness"), the structure and operation of that program seemed sufficiently idiosyncratic as not to offer much by way of a model. Now the
OIG has published six advisory opinions approving 'gainsharing' programs, where cardiologists and cardiac surgeons will be permitted to share in the savings hospitals generate by virtue of standardization of surgical supplies and their uses. As we note in our five principles for UFT-A, standardization for purposes of quality is important as an element of a business case for quality; but the advent of these gainsharing approvals further supports a business case for broad and deep standardization to the evidence. On the other hand, the gainsharing programs are time limited, appear to be predominately applicable in surgical contexts or analogous circumstances and hardly will serve to drive a sustainable business model for physicians.