Will Pay Incentives Improve Nursing Home Care?
Medicare to Test the Concept
Nursing homes in Arizona, Mississippi, New York and
Wisconsin asked to join
March 30, 2009 - Medicare officials on Friday
announced a new, four-state demonstration to determine if cash
incentives will improve the quality of care and efficiency of operations
in nursing homes. Nursing homes in Arizona, Mississippi, New York and
Wisconsin will be asked to participate.
Medicare is always interested in testing new ways
to improve the quality of care in nursing homes, said Charlene Frizzera,
acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
(CMS). We believe this demonstration to provide incentive payments for
superior performance will be informative.
Facilities joining the Nursing Home Value-Based
Purchasing demonstration will be awarded points for performance on
quality measures in four areas: nurse staffing, avoidable
hospitalizations, resident outcomes, and the scope and severity of
deficiency citations the home has received during inspections. Nursing
homes with the highest scores or the greatest improvement in their score
will be eligible for a performance payment.
Savings generated by improved performance, such as
reducing the number of avoidable hospitalizations, will fund state pools
from which payments will be made to qualified nursing homes.
Nursing homes wishing to be in the demonstration
will be randomly assigned to a demonstration group or a comparison
group. Medicare officials anticipate that at least 100 nursing
facilities in each state will apply to be part of this demonstration.
The demonstration is expected to run from July 2009 through June 2012,
at which time its effectiveness will be evaluated to inform possible
changes to Medicare payment policy.
CMS will mail an application kit to each
Medicare-certified nursing home in the demonstration states.
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March 30, 2009 - Medicare officials on Friday
announced a new, four-state demonstration to determine if cash
incentives will improve the quality of care and efficiency of operations
in nursing homes. Nursing homes in Arizona, Mississippi, New York and
Wisconsin will be asked to participate.