Round 5: March VBP Madness Play of the Day — Teams Compete for a Winning Season

Getting to know all players on the health care “court” environment is key for post–acute care leaders. Acute care providers are in full court press with VBP. As our partners in care, they are being monitored via what are called process measures. Process Measures comprise 70 percent of an acute care organizations overall VBP score. These measurements include issues surrounding heart failure, pneumonia and at least a dozen more considerations. Process Measures are scored in two categories—attainment and improvement.

The attainment score is reached when a facility is above the 50th percentile in the nation. The closer the performance is to the top 10% (or national benchmark), the higher the attainment score. An improvement score compares a certain QM from a base year to the scoring year. “A hospital scoring equal to or lower than its baseline period score on a measure would receive 0 points for improvement.”

While VBP is in full court press for our acute care partners, we in post acute are now entering the “court”. Quality Measure monitoring, IMPACT legislation focus on standardizing data, as well a the heightened awareness and impact of the NEW post acute care readmission measures. This scoring method supports the idea that the long-term success of VBP relies on the improvement of the entire health care system. When an individual facility’s performance improves on year, so will their goal for improvement in following years. And as the majority of facilities improve, the national benchmark for attainment will also increase.

Resource:
Illinois Hospital Association. “Value-Based Purchasing: Questions and Answers.” Feb. 1, 2011.