Greenbeard
Gold Member
The baby steps toward getting better value for our dollar continue via some of the new Medicare reforms:
In mid-December, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) posted one of the most important steps weve taken yet for Medicare reform. [...]
The Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program is one of a host of Affordable Care Act programs that put patients at the center of the Medicare system. Weve known for a long time that when Medicare paid providers based on how much work they did and not on how well they did for patients, too often patients got services and tests that didnt improve their health. Providers already must publicly report the steps they take to provide quality care to Medicare beneficiaries; Hospital Value-Based Purchasing gives these efforts additional teeth.
Beginning in 2013, Medicare will start paying hospitals a little more or a little less in each payment depending on how well they meet Medicares quality standards. The value-based payment adjustment factors tell them how much their base Medicare payments will change.
Hospitals are graded on improvement as well as performance on a variety of quality measures. These standards are consistent with clinical practice for the provision of high quality care. Did emergency room staff follow the right protocols with a heart-attack patient? Did a patient get antibiotics before surgery? Did your nurses and doctors listen to you?
In the next few years, as payment incentives gradually increase and more quality measures are added to the program, we will continue working with hospitals to make sure Medicare beneficiaries quality of care improves. The Hospital Value-Based Purchasing program is off to a strong start. Posting the value-based payment adjustment factors may seem like a routine step, but it actually heralds a new era in which Medicare actively promotes the best care for beneficiaries and makes their health priority #1.