Final answer:
The healthcare model known as the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) emphasizes collaboration among a team of health professionals to provide comprehensive, high-quality care. It seeks to address challenges in the healthcare system such as moral hazard and rising demand by efficiently using technology and restructuring healthcare provider incentives. This model contrasts with fee-for-service and aligns more closely with the values of health maintenance organizations (HMOs). The correct option is D .
Step-by-step explanation:
The model of practice where a team of health professionals work together to provide high levels of care, access, communications, care coordination, integration, quality, and safety is known as the patient-centered medical home (PCMH). This model contrasts with the traditional fee-for-service health financing system, where medical care providers receive reimbursement based on the individual services they provide. The PCMH represents a move away from such isolated transactions and towards a more holistic approach to patient care to improve health outcomes. In a PCMH, the personalized provider coordinates a team of health professionals, ensuring that care is continuous and integrated across all elements of the healthcare system, like specialists, hospitals, home health care, and community services.
Moreover, the PCMH model emphasizes the use of modern healthcare technologies such as electronic health records (EHRs) to share digital records among providers, improving quality and reducing costs. The approach aligns with goals to handle increased demand for healthcare services, driven in part by an aging and less healthy population. By leveraging tools like telemedicine and artificial intelligence, the healthcare industry aims to maintain high standards of care while also being efficient and cost-effective.
The evolution of healthcare provisions has also seen a gradual shift from fee-for-service to health maintenance organizations (HMOs) where providers receive a fixed lump sum for each patient, discouraging the volume of care delivered and focusing more on quality and necessary treatments. This has been an attempt to address moral hazard and adverse selection issues in healthcare financing, balancing managed care with the more traditional fee-for-service payments. Physicians today may be compensated through a combination of both models, which aims to incentivize them to provide necessary care without the economic pressure to over-service, thereby elevating the overall standard and efficiency of care delivered.