Pay-for-Performance Gaining Currency Among State Medicaid Programs
<p>More than half of all state Medicaid programs offer health care providers financial incentives to deliver better quality of care, and nearly 85 percent of states plan to have pay-for-performance programs within five years, a <a href="/cnlib/pub/enews_clickthrough.htm?enews_item_id=27808&return_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecmwf%2Eorg%2Fpublications%2Fpublications%5Fshow%2Ehtm%3Fdoc%5Fid%3D472891%26%23doc472891">new Commonwealth Fund report</a> finds.<br><br>The report, prepared by Thomas Hartman of IPRO and Kathryn Kuhmerker of the Kuhmerker Consulting Group, LLC outlines the most common pay-for-performance measures and incentives, discusses evaluation and reporting approaches, and provides detailed descriptions of state pay-for-performance programs. The research was based in part on a survey of state Medicaid directors and staff.<br><br>"Very few states have conducted formal evaluations of their pay-for-performance programs, but most Medicaid officials believe that the overall quality of care being provided is improving as a result of these programs," says Hartman, IPRO's vice president for health care quality improvement. An overwhelming majority of Medicaid directors state their pay-for-performance priority is on improving quality, not on reducing cost.<br><br>To help states design and implement physician-level pay-for-performance strategies, the Center for Health Care Strategies, with Commonwealth Fund support, has created <a href="/cnlib/pub/enews_clickthrough.htm?enews_item_id=27802&return_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecmwf%2Eorg%2Ftools%2Ftools%5Fshow%2Ehtm%3Fdoc%5Fid%3D473738%26%23doc473738">Physician Pay-for-Performance in Medicaid: A Guide for States</a>. This valuable resource offers practical lessons from a variety of Medicaid, commercial, and Medicare pay-for-performance programs.</p>
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletters/ealerts/2007/apr/pay-for-performance-gaining-currency-among-state-medicaid-programs