One of the biggest legal changes to the United States health care system that will have a major impact on healthcare providers is the Federal Government’s new Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program. Regardless if you are the manager at a large hospital system, an administrator at a smaller outpatient treatment facility or a doctor that treats Medicare patients; it is important to understand that the government wants to pay medical providers according to health outcomes of patients. This change presents a huge shift in current US healthcare policy where providers were traditionally paid for their services - regardless of patient health outcomes. This new hospital-based pay-for-performance system officially began in October 2012 and will be one of Medicare’s largest improvement campaigns.
