Hospitals participating in quality initiative receive $12 million in bonuses
Patient Safety Monitor Alert
August 19, 2009
In the fourth year of its existence, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Premier healthcare alliance Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration (HQID) value-based purchasing project delivered $12 million in bonuses to its 230 participating hospitals, reports HealthLeaders Media. The hospitals managed to raise the quality of care 17.2% on 30 measures. The payment model has taken into account the data from the previous three years of the initiative and tried to emphasize quality of care, not just volume, said a Premier spokesperson.
During the four years the HQID initiative has been running, an estimated 4,700 heart attack patients have been saved. Additionally, those hospitals involved in the HQID initiative score 6% higher than the rest of the field on 19 performance measures used with Hospital Compare.
