Administration Slows Movement Toward Medicare Quality Payments

The Trump administration is slowing Medicare’s movement toward making greater use of quality in its payment system. The Obama administration’s goal of having 50 percent of Medicare payments made through a quality or alternative payment model by the end of 2018 now appears to be out of sight.  Instead, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has partially canceled two bundled payment programs – one for joint replacement and another for cardiac rehabilitation programs – and announced that before introducing new programs it wants to take a closer look at the successes and failures of the alternative payment model programs [...]