Montpelier — Vermont’s top health care regulator said on Wednesday he was hopeful any changes to the federal health care system under president-elect Donald Trump’s administration would recognize that the state’s effort to pay doctors to keep people healthy is a better business model than paying them for the procedures they perform.

Green Mountain Care Board Chairman Al Gobeille made the comments after giving lawmakers an overview of the state’s plan to shift the way much of health care is paid for in the state to a model that rewards health care providers for keeping patients healthy.

Trump’s election has injected uncertainty into the nation’s health care reform efforts, Gobeille said.

“I’m hopeful they will take their time and think through what they’re talking about,” Gobeille said of any possible changes to federal health care rules and regulations.

“From everything I hear coming out of Washington, we have sort of done it ahead of them,” he said. “These are the … models that a business person would say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to innovate.’ That’s what we’ve done here and I’m hopeful that they recognize that and support it.”

In September, Vermont and federal officials agreed that the state could begin implementing a system in which payments could go to providers to keep patients healthy, including Medicare and Medicaid recipients and residents with private insurance. It replaces the traditional fee-for-service that pays providers for the procedures they perform.

Vermont is going to begin the years-long implementation of the new system on Jan. 1.

During his presentation at the Statehouse, Gobeille said efforts to regulate fee for service in the health care world have not been successful at controlling costs. He said, for example, that providers can be paid less for certain procedures, but any savings are lost when more of the procedures are performed.

“If you change the incentives I think you’re going to see a focus on upstream impacts that we haven’t had before,” he said.