HHS fast-tracks pay for performance

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced its intent to fundamentally reform how it pays providers for treating Medicare patients. The reforms aim to reduce the volume of unnecessary procedures while improving patient outcomes. The agency is “setting clear goals—and establishing a clear timeline—for moving from volume to value in Medicare payments,” said HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell. HHS will use benchmarks and metrics to measure progress and hold itself accountable for reaching these goals.

The agency’s first goal is for 30% of all Medicare provider payments to be in payment models tied to how well providers care for their patients—so-called pay for performance—instead of how much care they provide, by 2016. By 2018, the goal is for 50% of Medicare provider payments to be made through these payment models, Burwell stated. The second goal is for “virtually all” Medicare fee-for-service payments to be tied to quality and value. This means at least 85% of fee-for-service payments in 2016 and 90% in 2018.

Source: HHS