Foreword : fee schedule payment systems -- Introduction to fee schedule payment systems -- Healthcare provider concepts -- Anatomy of a fee schedule payment system -- Medicare physician fee schedule -- Other medicare fee schedule payment systems -- Private third-party payer fee schedule systems.

The paper studies the incentive for providers to invest in new health care technologies under alternative payment systems, when the patients' benefits are uncertain. If the reimbursement by the purchaser includes both a variable (per patient) and a lump-sum component, efficiency can be ensured...