CMS Releases Quality Strategy To Improve Healthcare Delivery
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
The goal is to shift Medicare payments from volume to value.
CMS released its 2016 CMS Quality Strategy, updating its blueprint for the shift from volume- to value-based payments for Medicare. The updated document reflects progress already made in shifting Medicare payment since 2014 and reflects on progress made on the payment reform initiatives.
It also includes new requirements from the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 (IMPACT Act) and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) legislation. The MACRA legislation, also called the doc fix, replaced the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate with the complicated Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).
“The implementation of MACRA is a major opportunity to put a broad range of healthcare providers on the path to value through the new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and incentive payments for participation in certain alternative payment models,” CMS CMO and Acting Deputy Administrator Dr. Patrick Conway wrote on the CMS blog.
According to the CMS blog, “This document guides the various components of CMS, including Medicaid, Medicare and the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, as they work together toward the common goal of health system transformation. We hope that through the communication of the 2016 CMS Quality Strategy Update we continue to build support for and promote the CMS Quality Strategy so that our partners can align initiatives with key CMS desired outcomes.”
The 2016 Update further develops the initial CMS Strategy and the HHS National Quality Strategy, with the purpose of achieving better overall quality of healthcare, creating healthier people and healthier communities, and reducing the cost of quality healthcare to engage in smarter spending. It sets six goals meant to accomplish this Triple Aim.
CMS has set the goal of 85 percent of all Medicare fee-for-service reimbursements tied to quality or value by the end of 2016, including shifting 30 percent of reimbursements to alternative payment models like bundled payments or Accountable Care Organizations. The goals rise to 90 percent and 50 percent, respectively, by 2018.