CMS' Inpatient Prospective Payment System proposed rule for fiscal year 2021 would make about $1.9 billion available for value-based incentive payments to hospitals, according to Bloomberg Law.
The payments would be made through the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program, which rewards acute care hospitals with incentive payments for the quality of care provided. CMS withholds and redistributes 2 percent of the payments for all hospitals participating in the program based on their performance.
In fiscal 2020, the eighth year of the VBP Program, more than 1,500 of the roughly 2,700 hospitals participating in the program received higher Medicare payments for inpatient stays. The total amount available for value-based incentive payments in fiscal 2020 was about $1.9 billion, and the same amount will be available in fiscal 2021.
Incentive payments are based on the performance score a hospital receives in the following four domains: clinical outcomes, safety, person and community engagement, and efficiency and cost reduction. Each of the domains contributes 25 percent to the total score.