Question:
There has been so much talk about Pay-for-Performance
(P4P) in home care. If it were enacted, we wonder
if it would really work.
Answer:
No
need to wonder! The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services (CMS) began a formal study of the impact
of P4P from January 2008 through December 2009 in
seven states: Illinois, Connecticut, Massachusetts,
Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and California. The
results are in and they are impressive.
According
to CMS, the Home Health Pay-for Performance (HHP4P)
Demonstration Project resulted in $15.4 million
dollars in savings in 2008, the first year of the
effort. Incentive payments are now being awarded
to home health agencies that were in their state's
highest performance levels, or highest levels of
improvement in patient outcomes.
According
to NAHC, the $15.4 million in incentive payments
will be distributed to the high performer/high improver
agencies based on the actual savings to the Medicare
program during 2008. Additional incentive payments
may be made to participating agencies later this
year if Medicare savings are also identified for
2009.
There
were seven measures that CMS used for this study:
