Value-Based Purchasing

The Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2006 authorizes the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to develop a Pay-for-Performance (P4P) or Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) prograjm to be applied to payments for Medicare hospital services starting in Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2009.

In its Report to Congress, CMS proposes to derive VBP scores to three quality domains:

• Process of Care (RHQDAPU)
• Patients' Perspectives of Care (HCAHPS Survey)
• Outcomes (30-day mortality measures for AMI and heart failure)

The latter two domains do not yet have enough publicly available data for score calculations; hence, these reports focus only on the RHQDAPU process indicators.