Encouraging Physicians to Provide High Quality and Lower Cost Health Services – The CMS Physician Feedback Program and Value-based Payment Modifier

The Physician Feedback Program provides comparative performance information to physicians on the quality and cost of care they furnish to their Medicare Fee for Service (FFS) beneficiaries. The value-based payment modifier is a new payment adjustment to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule beginning in 2015. The goal of this program is to incentivize physicians to improve the quality of care and care coordination received by Medicare beneficiaries by providing meaningful and actionable information to physicians so they can improve the care they furnish, and by moving toward physician reimbursement that rewards value rather than volume. Learn how the Physicians Feedback Program is being implemented, and how the value-based payment modifier is being developed, the status of quality and resource use reports that are being disseminated to physicians, and discuss the implications for the health of the public.