Linking Performance With Payment

PHYSICIANS ARE LEADERS OF PATIENT CARE TEAMS AND decision makers for system-based investments that facilitate quality improvement. The National Quality Strategy established 3 aims of improving health, improving health care, and reducing cost. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS’s) value-based purchasing (VBP) programs create incentives for physicians to pursue these aims and to reward value more so than volume. Physicians’ leadership role in the health system makes incorporating physicians into the VBP portfolio critical to realizing the potential of these programs. The Physician Value-Based Payment Modifier (value modifier), part of the Affordable Care Act, links physician performance in quality and cost with Medicare Part B payments. Medicare Part B covers services such as laboratory tests, surgeries, and physician visits. CMS recently finalized a rule implementing the value modifier, including initial eligibility, measures of quality and cost, and the effect of physician performance on payment. This Viewpoint provides an overview of the program, its effect on physicians, and aims to engage physicians in a dialogue about how the value modifier should evolve over the course of implementation.