title: Medicare Payment Reform: Aligning Incentives for Better Care.
abstract: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has provided the Medicare program with an array of tools to improve the quality of care that beneficiaries receive and to increase the efficiency with which that care is provided. Notably, the ACA has created the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, which is developing and testing promising new models to improve the quality of care provided to Medicare beneficiaries while reducing spending. These new models are part of an effort by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to increase the proportion of traditional Medicare payments tied to quality or value to 85 percent by 2016 and 90 percent by 2018. This issue brief, one in a series on Medicare's past, present, and future, explores the evolution of Medicare payment policy, the potential of value-based payment to improve care for beneficiaries and achieve savings, and strategies for accelerating its adoption.
authors.affiliation: Center for Hospital Finance and Management, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. ganderso@jhsph.edu
authors.forename: Gerard F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Guterman
mesh_terms: D060866:Accountable Care Organizations; D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D005544:Forecasting; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D006278:Medicare / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; D058996:Quality Improvement / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States; D062505:Value-Based Purchasing