Assessing Medicare's Efforts to Reform Provider Payment

Payment reform is a powerful strategy for improving the value of health care. To ensure success, fundamental changes must take hold in both the public and private sectors, and they must expand over time. Researchers at Catalyst for Payment Reform will develop a scorecard on Medicare payment reform to quantify the dollars flowing to doctors and hospitals through Medicare’s payment reform programs. Modeled after the private-sector payment reform scorecard developed by the grantee with previous Commonwealth Fund support, the new resource will inform policymakers, providers, insurers, and the public about how well Medicare’s payment initiatives align with private-sector efforts, and about how the nation’s largest health care payer reimburses providers. It also will monitor Medicare’s progress in achieving the Affordable Care Act’s payment reform objectives.