The most common payment model in healthcare is fee for service (FFS). Healthcare professionals and doctors are reimbursed based on the amount of services they deliver or procedures they perform under this model. In a fee-for-service model, payments are not bundled. When a patient visits the doctor, has a consultation, or is hospitalised, the insurance providers or government agencies are paid for any examination, operation, and care provided. Regardless of the result, this payment model rewards doctors for the amount and quantity of services they deliver.

What Is Fee For Service Health Plan?

The fee-for-service health plan was the standard form of health insurance prior to the value-based care initiative. The FFS coverage, also known as indemnity policies, is the most expensive; but, for those who can afford it, a fee for service insurance plan offers full freedom and flexibility. With FFS, clients will select their own doctors and hospitals with no intervention from the insurance company. A fee-for-service insurance plan necessitates a high level of out-of-pocket spending because clients will be expected to pay medical premiums in advance and send bills for reimbursement.

What Is Health Fee For Service?

H Fee-for-Service Program is a scheme that provides two types of insurance. For qualified residents, this requires hospital care as well as supplemental medical insurance. In general, hospitalisation, referral to hospice or a nursing centre, examinations, surgical operations, and home health care are all covered by hospital insurance. The supplementary component of the Health fee-for-service policy covers facilities such as hospitals, outpatient treatment, medical supplies, and certain preventive care provided by healthcare providers.

Has Fee For Service Been Phased Out?

A variety of healthcare reform reports in recent years have called for the FFS initiative to be phased out. FFS was identified as one of the causes of inequitable treatment, excessive facilities, and healthcare inflation in the reports. Medical billing is becoming more difficult for healthcare providers as the paradigm shifts from a conventional fee-for-service model to a value-based care model. The FFS measure pays out based on the number of facilities provided and the care of diseases and accidents as they arise. Value-based care, on the other side, reimburses for the value of resources and preemptive health control, which entails preventing illnesses and accidents and recognizing problems at an early stage in order to reduce costs.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Fee-for-Service
The Benefits:
 Patients receive excellent care, and the provider may make appropriate recommendations.
 Physicians should charge a fair price for a plan and be flexible enough to provide precise assistance to their patients.

Consequences
 Delivering holistic and value-based treatment is rewarded very little, if at all when it is done on a fee-for-service basis.
 FFS encourages physicians to order unnecessary tests and treatments in order to increase their profits, as well as to practice “defensive medicine.”
 Restricted to personal visits and acts as a stumbling block in the treatment of illnesses using unorthodox approaches.
 FFS is associated with an improvement in overall health.