HITPC: Value-based pay plan is 'sentinel'

"I'm not sure the public understands how sentinel this announcement is," said Paul Tang, MD, of the Department of Health and Human Services' plans to shift to value-based payment. Tang was speaking during the federal Health IT Policy Committee meeting.

HHS answered a lot of questions about if and when, he said, "was really helpful to a lot of folks. The timeline set out is ambitious but achievable." Tang also said the value-based payment effort is "extraordinarily important."

"It's important to recognize that this is a conversation about mainstreaming," said National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc. "We want to make a fundamental change in the way we are advancing care delivery so that it is setting expectations and clear pathways for providers and consumers going forward. This is not a program that will end. It's not someting we just do on the side."

Changing the way providers are paid will allow for evolution and innovation in care, she said. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center has spent the last three years testing new payment models. "There's a real opportunity to learn from what we've already done."