Dive Brief:
- More than 1,600 hospitals in the Value-Based Purchasing program (VBP) will receive a positive payment adjustment in fiscal year 2017 while around 1,300 will receive a negative payment adjustment, according to CMS data released Tuesday.
- Base payments to fund the program will increase from 1.5% to 2% of Medicare payments to provide an estimated total of $1.8 billion.
- Around one-half of hospitals will see their base pay change by 0.5% in either direction while the top performing hospital will receive a 4% positive payment adjustment and the worst performing hospital will receive a 1.83% negative payment adjustment.
Dive Insight:
In addition to results announced for fiscal year 2017, CMS also announced changes for fiscal year 2018. The 2018 program will score hospitals in four equally-weighted domains: Clinical care, patient and caregiver experience, safety, and efficiency and cost reduction.
In a deeper look at VBP data, Modern Healthcare reported on Tuesday that 200 fewer hospitals would receive positive payment adjustments than last year. This year, 55% percent of hospitals will receive a positive payment adjustment compared to 59% last year. The number of hospitals receiving negative payment adjustments will grow from 1,236 in 2016 to 1,343 in 2017.
Last year, a Government Accountability Office report determined that VBP had minimal effect. Performance on quality measures did not change significantly for better or worse, according to the report. "However, shifts in quality trends could emerge in the future as the HVBP program continues to evolve.”