HIMSS: Only 3% of Providers Believe Their Organization is Highly-Prepared for Transition to Value-Based Payment Model

By Claire Thayer, March 14, 2016

The clock is ticking! There’s a lot of incentive for hospitals and physicians to transition to value-based care.  With the onset of the Affordable Care Act, HHS has set a goal of tying 30% of traditional, or fee-for-service, Medicare payments to quality or value through alternative payment models, such as Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) or bundled payment arrangements by the end of 2016, and tying 50 percent of payments to these models by the end of 2018.  HHS also set a goal of tying 85 percent of all traditional Medicare payments to quality or value by 2016 and 90 percent by 2018 through programs such as the Hospital Value Based Purchasing and the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Programs. Last week it was announced that  more than 30 percent of Medicare payments are now made through alternative payment models tied to quality outcomes.

The 2016 HIMSS Cost Accounting Survey finds that while the transition from fee-for-service to pay-for-value has been referred to as one of the greatest financial challenges the U.S. healthcare system currently faces,  a mere 3% of respondents believe their organization is highly prepared to make the transition from fee-for-service to a value-based payment system.

The Top 3 Needs in transitioning to a value-based payment system, identified in the HIMSS Survey:

• Tools to track and evaluate quality of care
• Better communication between disparate providers
• Consistent definition of quality by specific type of disease