CMS offers dry run of value based purchasing program

On February 29, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began a dry run of its value based purchasing program, according to the QualityNet website.

According to QualityNet, the dry run stimulates fiscal year 2013, when the program actually begins.  For the dry run, CMS will create hospital-specific performance reports for each eligible hospital to review using hospital data from prior years.  CMS hopes the dry run will provide hospitals information on how performance will be scored.

The article states that not all hospitals will be eligible for the dry run, but even those not eligible can receive a sample report.

(Sources: QualityNet.org, February 23, 2012; The Advisory Board Daily Briefing, http://advisory.com, March 7, 2012)