In a January meeting with nearly two dozen leaders representing consumers, insurers, providers and business leaders, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced measurable goals and a timeline to move the Medicare program—and the health care system at large—toward paying providers based on the quality rather than the quantity of care they give patients.
This is the first time in the history of the Medicare program that HHS has set explicit goals for alternative payment models and value-based payments. HHS has set an goal objective of tying 30 percent of traditional, or fee-for-service, Medicare payments to quality or value through alternative payment models, such as Accountable Care Organizations, or ACOs, or bundled payment arrangements by the end of 2016, and tying 50 percent of payments to these models by the end of 2018.
