A study suggests flaws in Medicare's value-based purchasing program component relating to average beneficiary spending.
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CMS' creation of a value-based purchasing modifier used with reimbursement seems to have little actual correlation with quality of care.
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Research carried by the Journal of the American Medical Association looks at the impact of social factors and medical risk on valued-based purchasing program performance.
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Not many physician groups achieved extra payments in the first year of CMS' value-based purchasing program.
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Medicare's quality improvement programs may have a disproportionately negative impact on teaching hospitals.
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Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that financial incentives may not do much to incent better quality.
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Research published in Health Affairs takes a look at the effect of a value-based purchasing contract on mental health services.
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Leavitt Partners publishes an assessment of the Medicare hospital value-based purchasing program.
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CMS released findings for the latest year of hospital value-based purchasing, indicating that based on 2014 performance, for 2016 payments 1800 hospitals will get some "bonus" reimbursement. Note, however, that the bonus is after everyone had their payment docked 1.75% to fund the program. Only a few hospitals will see an actual increase in payment from what the baseline would otherwise be. For the vast majority of hospitals, the net effect is very minor.
https://www.cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Fact-sheets/2015-Fact-sheets-items/2015-10-26.htmlAccording to a Government Accounting Office Report, so far not much to show from CMS' hospital value-based purchasing program.
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According to KPMG, many providers expect to have worse financial results from value-based contracts, but hope a focus on chronic care management and HIT may lessen the sting.
http://business.itbusinessnet.com/article/Healthcare-Managers-Expect-Value-Based-Contracts-to-Hurt-Profits-Providers-Pessimistic:-KPMG-Survey-3332584A perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that application of the Medicare value-based purchasing program to hospitals serving more disadvantages patients punishes them financially, reducing their resources to improve care, which hopefully is an unintended consequence.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1312654More hospitals are being penalized, and penalized more on average, under Medicare's value-based purchasing program. Some hospitals are also getting bonuses. It is unclear what the consequences of the program are or will be on hospital behavior and patient care.
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2013/November/14/value-based-purchasing-medicare.aspx?utm_source=medicaretop&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=111813About this Blog
The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.