CMS releases data on quality to help patients choose providers
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today released data on the quality of care provided by physician group practices, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and hospitals. These data are available on Physician Compare, Hospital Compare and Data.Medicare.gov.
The performance information released this month will give patients and families additional information they can use to inform their selection of a hospital or physician practice. Health care professionals differ in the quality and safety of care they provide and these websites empower consumers with information to help with health care decisions, encourage providers to strive for higher levels of quality, and drive overall health system improvement.
The data released today includes:
- Information on Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program 2015 payment adjustments The Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program provides a useful snapshot of how hospitals are performing on important quality indicators of patient care, quality, efficiency, and well-being. It is one of many Affordable Care Act programs Medicare is implementing to pay for quality instead of quantity. The program ties a portion of payments to hospitals’ performance on certain quality measures such as death within 30 days after a heart attack and patient experience of care.
The portion of FY 2015 Medicare payments available to fund the value-based incentive payments increases from 1.25 to 1.5 percent of the base operating DRG payment amounts to all participating hospitals. The total amount available for value-based incentive payments in FY 2015 will be approximately $1.4 billion.Data from the third year of the program indicates that hospitals are improving care and outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries. More hospitals this year will experience a positive change in their payments (1,714) compared to the number of hospitals that will experience a negative change (1,375) – a reversal of last year This change indicates that many hospitals are improving the quality of care delivered to patients.
More information on the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing program payment adjustments can be found here: http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Payment/AcuteInpatientPPS/FY2015-IPPS-Final-Rule-Home-Page-Items/FY2015-Final-Rule-Tables.html.
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