News: Report advises HHS to improve VBP measurements

After a decade of performance-based healthcare payment initiatives, the Department of Health and Human Services decided it was high-time to take a look at the success of those initiatives even as it embarks of additional value-based purchasing (VBP) measures across an array of healthcare settings as required by the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

To do so, the agency contracted with RAND Health, which recently released “Measuring Success in Health Care: Value-Based Purchasing Programs.” In it, RAND reviewed the elements of successful VBP programs and to identify gaps in the knowledge base that, if addressed, could improve the design and functioning of VBP programs moving forward.

The report asks HHS to establish federal goals for VBP efforts and to align those goals between the various payment methods and groups governed by CMS, according to AHA News Now. The authors also encourage HHS to work with measure-development experts to chart a new strategy and process for developing performance measures that “move beyond primarily assessing processes of care to also focus on evaluating patient outcomes and the appropriate use of services,” among other actions.