In one week: P4P, MU changes

Chances are good you didn't miss this week's health IT news. After all, social media sites lit up, listservs were active and headlines proclaimed the news regarding pay-for-performance and the potential for rulemaking to alleviate some of the pressures of Meaningful Use. 

In making the announcement, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said the intended changes would help to reduce the reporting burden on providers, while supporting the long-term goals of the program.

Patrick Conway, MD, CMS chief medical officer and deputy administrator for innovation and quality, authored a CMS blog post said the new rule “would be intended to be responsive to provider concerns about software implementation, information exchange readiness and other related concerns in 2015. It would also be intended to propose changes reflective of developments in the industry and progress toward program goals achieved since the program began in 2011.”

Earlier in the week, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) announced measurable goals and an aggressive timeline to move the Medicare program toward a system based on paying providers based on the quality, rather than quantity, of care they provide.

HHS has established a goal of tying 30 percent of traditional, or fee-for-service, Medicare payments to quality or value through alternative payment models, such as accountable care organizations or bundled payment arrangements by the end of 2016, and tying 50 percent of payments to these models by the end of 2018.  HHS also set a goal of tying 85 percent of all traditional Medicare payments to quality or value by 2016 and 90 percent by 2018 through programs such as the Hospital Value Based Purchasing and the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Programs. This is the first time in the history of the Medicare program that HHS has set explicit goals for alternative payment models and value-based payments.

“Today’s announcement is about improving the quality of care we receive when we are sick, while at the same time spending our healthcare dollars more wisely,” HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said. “We believe these goals can drive transformative change, help us manage and track progress, and create accountability for measurable improvement.” 

This week also saw a draft proposal for 21st Century Cures, a Congressional hearing about a national data security standard and the announcement of a new chief medical officer for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. Is your head spinning yet?

Beth Walsh

Clinical Innovation + Technology editor