Today, Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), announced that quality of care has improved significantly in hospitals participating in a groundbreaking Medicare pay-for-performance demonstration project. Medicare is awarding $8.7 million to hospitals that showed improvements in care during the first year of the program, although the program is expected to provide long-term savings because of improved patient health, fewer complications, and fewer hospital readmissions. This is the first time that actual monetary bonuses have been awarded to health care providers in a pay-for-performance demonstration, and provides statistical evidence that this model works to improve the quality of health care. Under the Premier Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration, top performing hospitals will receive bonuses based on their performance on 34 evidence-based quality measures for inpatients with: heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, coronary artery bypass graft, and hip and knee replacements. The quality measures selected for the demonstration have an extensive record of validation through research, and are based on work by the Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs), the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Quality Forum (NQF), the Premier system and other CMS collaborators. Premier, Inc. is a nationwide alliance of about 1,500 organizations of not-for-profit hospital facilities. The demonstration project began in October 2003, with over 270 hospitals voluntarily participating. During the first year of the demonstration, quality of care improved in all of the five clinical areas for which quality was measured. Top performing hospitals received bonuses based on their performance on evidence-based quality measures for inpatients with the five conditions. Hospitals in the top 10 percent for a given condition received a 2 percent bonus on their Medicare payments for that condition. Hospitals in the second 10 percent were given a 1 percent bonus. Hospitals in the remainder of the top percent got recognition for their quality but no bonus. Additional information on the Premier Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration can be found on the CMS website using the link below. |
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