More than 30% of dialysis facilities will receive a Medicare payment reduction in 2012 under a CMS value-based purchasing program for the care of patients with end-stage renal disease, according to the first set of results for the program released by the agency.
The remaining 69.1% will receive no reduction under the quality effort, called the ESRD Quality Incentive Program, according to the CMS.
The cuts are broken down as follows: 16.6% of 4,939 facilities will receive a 0.5% reduction; 6% will receive a 1% reduction; 7.7% will receive a 1.5% reduction; and 0.6% will receive a 2% reduction. Not included in the results were 625 facilities that did not receive a score because of insufficient data, and their payments will not be reduced.
The program assessed facility performance during 2010 on three quality measures to arrive at the payment: two regarding anemia management and one on dialysis adequacy, though one of the anemia management measures will be dropped from the program.
Dialysis facilities paid under the ESRD prospective payment system are expected to see an overall increase of 2.1% in their Medicare payment rates in 2012, which the CMS estimates should total about $8.3 billion.
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