Value-Based Purchasing — National Programs to Move from Volume to Value

A potentially transformational tool that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is deploying to achieve better health, better care, and lower costs is value-based purchasing (VBP). Two VBP programs are under way, and a third will begin next year. The National Quality Strategy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services broadly defines the outcomes that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) wants to achieve through the care it purchases for its beneficiaries. The strategy's three aims of better health, better care, and lower costs capture CMS's concept of value — improved outcomes for individuals and populations at lower costs. CMS has many tools to support the three aims, but we believe that value-based purchasing (VBP) is one of the most potentially transformational. VBP rewards providers who deliver better outcomes in health and health care for . . .