Medicare’s Hospital Value-Based Purchasing program has not accelerated the improvement of patient experience beyond previous trends, according to a study reported this week in Health Affairs. “Instead, we found that the rate of improvements in patient experience has slowed since the program was implemented,” the authors said. “Over the entire study period, certain subsets of hospitals (such as small ones) seemed to have improved in patient experience more than other subsets (such as larger hospitals), yet even for the institutions that had greater improvement, the majority of the change occurred before implementation of the VBP program.” The study examined trends in multiple measures of patient satisfaction between 2008 and 2014. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services began publicly reporting on patient-reported experience through the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey in 2008, and tied Medicare payments directly to these measures through the VBP program in 2011. The authors said the study “adds to a growing body of literature suggesting that U.S. pay-for-performance schemes have had little to no effect on driving meaningful improvements in other patient outcomes.”

Related News Articles

Headline
The AHA April 30 released a report highlighting how hospitals and health systems continue to experience significant financial headwinds that can challenge…
Headline
The Supreme Court April 29 ruled 7-2 in favor of the Department of Health and Human Services in a case that challenged how HHS applied Congress’ formula for…
Headline
There have been 8,064 reported cases of whooping cough in the U.S. so far this year, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and…
Headline
A study published April 17 by BMC Infectious Diseases found increased incidents of Acinetobacter baumannii and carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii infections…
Headline
The incidence of invasive group A strep infections increased from 3.6 to 8.2 cases per 100,000 people from 2013 to 2022, according to a study authored by the…
Headline
The AHA Living Learning Network is launching the Quality Exchange, a virtual collaborative for health care quality and patient safety professionals at…