The New York Times reports,

An influential medical standards group plans to present a new model today for helping employers and insurers to identify the best primary care doctors and to steer patients their way. Those doctors, in turn, would be paid for more services than are currently reimbursed under typical health plan payments for office visits.

The idea is to encourage doctors to meet with patients for more than a few minutes during an office visit and to also compensate them, or nurse coordinators, for communicating with patients by phone and e-mail outside office hours.

The organization, National Center for Quality Assessment, does not seem to place much weight on statistical evidence. To me, that is something of a red flag.

Thanks to Joseph Coletti for the pointer.