Agreement to Destroy Medicare As We Know It

Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services announced it had beat its target of tying 30% of Medicare Part A and B payments to “quality of care rather than quantity of services.” That goal was initially set for the end of 2016, but was actually achieved in January.

Initially, this was a goal set only by administrative fiat, in January 2015. However, it soon picked up bipartisan legislative support in the so-called “doc fix” bill of April 2015. The Administration has a goal of tying 90% of payments to “quality” by 2018 and it now looks like this is a realistic target.