In the news: Premier says any hospital can achieve positive value-based purchasing results

Although safety net hospitals (those with the highest percentage of disproportionate share patients) lagged behind other types of hospitals at the outset of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Premier Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration’s value-based purchasing project, they seem to be catching up, according to an August 6 press release from Premier Healthcare Alliance.

Below is aggregate data representing all clinical quality measures within each clinical area from the first three years of the project:

• Heart Attack (AMI)
  Non-safety net: 90.7-96.2 percent (5.5 percent improvement)
  Safety net: 88.8-95.2 percent (6.4 percent improvement)
• Heart Failure
  Non-safety net: 72.4-88.6 percent (16.3 percent improvement)
  Safety net: 68.4-86.3 percent (17.9 percent improvement)
• Hip and Knee Replacement
  Non-safety net: 89.0-95.5 percent (6.5 percent improvement)
  Safety net: 86.8-94.7 percent (7.9 percent improvement)