The third installment in the Pathways to Quality Health Care series, Rewarding Provider Performance: Aligning Incentives in Medicare, continues to address the timely topic of the quality of health care in America. Each volume in the series effectively evaluates specific policy approaches within the context of improving the current operational framework of the health care system. The theme of this particular book is the staged introduction of pay for performance into Medicare. Pay for performance is a strategy that financially rewards health care providers for delivering high-quality care. Building on the findings and recommendations described in the two companion editions, Performance Measurement and Medicare's Quality Improvement Organization Program, this book offers options for implementing payment incentives to provide better value for America's health care investments.

This book features conclusions and recommendations that will be useful to all stakeholders concerned with improving the quality and performance of the nation's health care system in both the public and private sectors.


Table of Contents


Front Matter
Summary
1 Introduction
2 The Promise of Pay for Performance
3 Alternative Funding Sources
4 Distribution of Rewards
5 Implementation
6 Monitoring, Evaluation, and Research: Future Directions
Appendix A: Selected Medicare Prospective Payment Systems
Appendix B: Review of the Evidence
Appendix C: Comparison of Various Professional Groups' Pay-for-Performance Position Statements
Appendix D: MEDPAC Data Runs
Appendix E: Pay for Performance in Various Care Settings
Appendix F: Acronyms
Appendix G: Biographies
Index