CMS extends pay-for-performance program

CMS has extended its pay-for-performance program for three more years, pleased with the results of the program's first two years of results. By CMS's measures, participating hospitals improved overall quality by 11.8 percent during the second year. In response, CMS paid out $8.7 million to the 115 hospitals that performed the best. The next three years of the program, the Premier Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration, will test two new P4P models, one for hospitals that meet a given standard and one for hospitals that improve the most. The next-gen measures will focus on common conditions such as pneumonia, heart bypass, heart attack, heart failure and hip and knee replacement. As before, the extended program is being run as a partnership with Premier, a national organization of not-for-profit hospitals.

To get more background on the program:
- read this Modern Healthcare item (sub. req.)
- get CMS data from the first years of the program

Related Article:
Medicare P4P results show care improvements. Report
Positive results for Medicare P4P pilot. Report
Exclusive: How to make P4P work. Interview