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Press Release
Pay for Performance: Are Hospitals Ready and Willing?
New Brief from Mathematica Is Based on Survey of Hospital Executives
Contact:
Sue Felt-Lisk, (202) 484-4519, or Cheryl Pedersen, (609) 275-2258
WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 14, 2006)—Hospital care pay-for-performance (P4P) initiatives are part of a broader national movement to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care services. A new issue brief from Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., reports on current hospital participation in P4P programs, hospital executives' views on P4P, and their support for a future P4P initiative by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The findings suggest that as of summer 2005, hospitals were ready and willing to move forward into a broader P4P environment.
Mathematica's brief highlights results from a survey of hospital quality improvement directors and senior executives conducted in summer 2005. The sample represented short-term acute care general and critical-access hospitals in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The survey findings include the following:
- Only 20 percent of hospitals were participating in these types of programs at the time of the survey, with large hospitals accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations more likely than other types of hospitals to have experience with P4P.
- Fewer than 6 percent of hospitals took part in more than one P4P program.
- Many hospital executives said their main reason for participating in P4P was that they viewed the programs as an opportunity for gaining financial benefit or stimulating quality improvement.
- Ninety-three percent supported CMS in moving forward with a P4P program over the next couple of years. Support was strong among both hospitals that participated in P4P and those that did not.
- Most hospitals are comfortable with incorporating the quality measures they currently report to CMS into a future CMS P4P program.
“Selecting the right measures will be a critical element of future success in the pay for performance arena,” said Suzanne Felt-Lisk, lead author of the brief and a senior health researcher at Mathematica. “In choosing measures, CMS will need to strike a balance between including a large number of measures to estimate hospital quality accurately in important clinical areas, and overwhelming hospitals with new measures they have not been reporting.”
The brief, “Pay for Performance: Are Hospitals Ready and Willing?” is based on a study funded by CMS through the Delmarva Foundation. Printed copies are available from Publications, (609) 275-2350.
Mathematica, a nonpartisan firm, conducts policy research and surveys for federal and state governments, foundations, and private-sector clients. The employee-owned company, with offices in Princeton, N.J., Washington, D.C., and Cambridge, Mass., has conducted some of the most important studies of health care, disability, early childhood policies, welfare, education, employment, and nutrition programs in the U.S. Mathematica strives to improve public well-being by bringing the highest standards of quality, objectivity, and excellence to bear on the provision of information collection and analysis to its clients.
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Mathematica® is a registered trademark of Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
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