Pay For Performance:
P4P Demo Doles Out Millions To Participants
Published on Fri Jan 08, 2010
Expect pay for performance to go nationwide in the future, experts say. Home health agencies that made the decision in 2007 to be P4P guinea pigs are reaping the rewards today. The results are in from the first year of Medicare's pay for performance demonstration, and agencies that participated and were put in the intervention group are now splitting up a cool $15.4 million in savings. Background: Back in 2007, Medicare P4P contractor Abt Associates touted the two-year demo that ran in seven states as a risk-free way to try out the new payment structure. HHAs' Medicare payments were not docked for poor performance, so the worst case scenario was receiving regular Medicare reimbursement, Abt's Henry Goldberg told the industry (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XVI, No. 37, p. 282). And now 166 agencies are seeing the best case scenario, a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services official says -- allocation of [...]