Study: High-risk practices more likely to receive physician VBP penalty

Physician practices that served a disproportionate share of medically and socially high-risk patients in the first year of the Medicare Physician Value-Based Payment Modifier Program were more likely to receive a penalty compared with other practices, according to a study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study looked at program payments made in 2015 to 899 large practices caring for more than 5.1 million Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries in 2013. It found that practices serving more socially high-risk patients had lower quality and lower costs, while practices serving more medically high-risk patients had lower quality and higher costs.