{"id":509,"date":"2009-09-23T16:13:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-23T20:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/?p=509"},"modified":"2009-09-23T16:13:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-23T20:13:00","slug":"hospitalists-take-on-baucus-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/?p=509","title":{"rendered":"Hospitalists’ Take on Baucus Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

From The Hospitalist Web site <\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Addition of a hospital value-based purchasing (VBP) program to Medicare beginning in 2012. The program would tie incentive payments to performance on quality measures related to such conditions as heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care, and patient perceptions of care. So far, the program\u2019s rough outlines have been well received. \u201cWe fundamentally support hospital value-based purchasing,\u201d Dr. Siegal says. \u201cWe think it\u2019s a necessary step in the evolution to higher-value health care in general.\u201d <\/p>\n

Expansion of the Physician\u2019s Quality Reporting Initiative, with a 1% payment penalty by 2012 for nonparticipants. The bill also would direct the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to improve the appeals process and feedback mechanism. Although the Baucus plan\u2019s \u201cmark\u201d doesn\u2019t discuss transitioning to pay-for-performance, Dr. Siegal says the shift likely is inevitable. In the meantime, pay-for-reporting can encourage better outcomes through a public reporting mechanism and \u201cgrease the skids\u201d for a pay-for-performance initiative. <\/p>\n

Creation of a CMS Payment Innovation Center \u201cauthorized to test, evaluate, and expand different payment structures and methodologies,\u201d with a goal of improving quality and reducing Medicare costs. Dr. Siegal says the proposal is consistent with SHM\u2019s aims. \u201cWe have for a long time advocated for a robust capability to test new payment models and to figure out what works better than what we have right now,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

Establishment of a three-year Medicare pilot called the Community Care Transitions Program. The program would spend $500 million over 10years on efforts to reduce preventable rehospitalizations. SHM\u2019s Project BOOST<\/a> (Better Outcomes for Older Adults through Safe Transitions) likely would qualify. \u201cWe\u2019re very positive about that,\u201d Dr. Siegal says. \u201cI think there is a huge amount of scrutiny now on avoidable rehospitalizations. We think BOOST is a step in the right direction, and we\u2019d love to see greater funding to roll this out on a much larger basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on the current healthcare reform debate, visit SHM\u2019s advocacy portal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Bryn Nelson wrote the piece for The Hospitalist, and Eric Siegal, MD, is chair of the Society of Hospital Medicine’s Public Policy Committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From The Hospitalist Web site Addition of a hospital value-based purchasing (VBP) program to Medicare beginning in 2012. The program would tie incentive payments to performance on quality measures related … Continue reading “Hospitalists’ Take on Baucus Bill”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[118,92,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baucus-plan","category-organized-medicine","category-payment-reform"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}