U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell has announced a timeline to shift the Medicare program toward paying healthcare providers based on quality rather than quantity of patient care.
The department has set the following goals:
- Connect 30% of traditional, or fee-for-service, Medicare payments to quality or value through alternative payment models such as accountable care organizations (ACOs) or bundled payment arrangements by the end of 2016.
- Connect 50% of payments to these models by the end of 2018.
- Connect 85% of all traditional Medicare payments to quality or value by 2016 and 90% by 2018 through programs such as the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program and the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program.
HHS plans to extend these goals beyond Medicare as well, with the creation of what it calls the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network. Through this organization, HHS will work with private payors, employers, consumers, providers, states, and state Medicaid programs to integrate alternative payment models into their programs. The network will hold its first meeting in March.
HHS has already seen cost savings with alternative payment models, with combined total program savings of $417 million to Medicare due to existing ACO programs, the department said.
