WASHINGTON – The Department of Health and Human Services awarded George Washington University a $1 million contract to study various healthcare reimbursement incentive approaches used by large government and commercial payers.
HHS wants to find out whether similar incentives might be successfully applied to improve the quality of care delivered by safety net providers. HHS also wants the contractor to assess the influence of electronic health records to date and how to increase their adoption in communities that have populations with more pronounced health disparities.
The notice was posted June 21 on the the Federal Business Opportunities Web site.
The notice explained that HHS wants to align incentives – including those for using health IT – to improve healthcare quality in federally qualified health centers, rural health clinics and free clinics. HHS must report the findings of the study to Congress in February 2011.
Current quality incentives often restrict participation by safety net providers because of their unique payment methods. For instance, these providers generally bill Medicare on an institutional claim form, which does not include the data elements necessary for quality incentive programs established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
If safety net providers changed the way they billed for their services, they could be eligible to participate in demonstrations, the announcement said.
"The concept of payment that rewards higher quality has begun to be accepted by payers and to take shape in ways such as through CMS demonstration programs, performance measures, and other private payer incentive programs," the announcement said.
"Current efforts to link healthcare payments to the quality and efficiency of care are "shifting the reimbursement structure away from paying providers based solely on their volume of services," it said.
HHS wants the chosen contractor to bring together experts, including the National Association of Community Health Centers and the National Association of Free Clinics, to help identify the most promising methods through which safety net providers can participate in quality incentive programs.
Among the topics that should be addressed in the discussion are accountable care organizations, medical home and "meaningful use" health IT incentive payments, HHS said.
