In Chapter 2, Healthcare Foundations, we discussed that a fee-for-service (FFS) reimbursement model has been used in medicine, in which physicians are reimbursed by the volume of care they provided rather than the value of that care. More recently, there has been a push toward rewarding providers based on the quality of care rather than the quantity of care given.

In order to facilitate the movement from FFS reimbursement to value-based reimbursement, the CMS has implemented value-based programs. These programs reward or penalize providers for the quality of care that they provide to Medicare patients. In 2018, there are a total of eight such programs. They are the following:

• The Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (HVBP) program 
• The Hospital Readmission Reduction (HRR) program 
• The Hospital Acquired Conditions (HAC) program 
• The End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) quality initiative  program 
• The Skilled Nursing Facility Value-Based Program (SNFVBP)
• The Home Health Value-Based Program (HHVBP)
• Alternative Payment Models (APMs)
• The Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)

In the following sections, we will take a detailed look at these programs.