Period of adjustment. Health plans experiment with new clinical risk adjustment strategies.

Health plans are moving forward with the concept of clinical risk adjustment--essentially, paying physicians more for taking on sicker patients--in a variety of forms. The challenges, from the policy and strategy levels to the data collection and analysis level, are many. Yet, despite some concerns on the part of provider execs, observers say clinical risk adjustment's time has come. Meanwhile, the issues remain many for both plans and providers.