One in seven Medicare patient experiences some kind of adverse event during a hospital stay. As an added incentive for hospitals to become safer, the Affordable Care Act will now pay hospitals based on their performance in key quality measurements and how much their performance has improved compared to the previous fiscal year. These incentives apply to discharges occurring on or after October 1, 2012.

 

The higher a hospital's performance or improvement during the performance period for a fiscal year, the higher the hospital's value-based incentive payment for the fiscal year will be.

You can find additional information about the program on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website. 

Read the final rule governing value-based purchasing »