North Shore–Long Island Jewish Health System has been awarded the most incentives – nearly $3.7 million – under a national pay-for-performance program, the system announced on Thursday.
The awards were granted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Premier Healthcare Alliance as part of the Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration Project (HQID), now in its sixth and final year.
The project is the first national project of its kind designed to determine if economic incentives to hospitals are effective at improving the quality of patient care.
[See also: P4P programs' ability to improve care 'questionable at best'.]
Through the HQID project, Premier collects a set of more than 30 evidence-based clinical quality measures from the 216 hospitals across the country. The model includes financial incentives for 20 percent of hospitals in each of six clinical areas: acute myocardial infarction; coronary artery bypass graft; heart failure; pneumonia; hip and knee replacement; and the surgical care improvement project.
Over the course of the six-year project, CMS has awarded more than $60 million to hospitals nationwide, according to Premier.
North Shore-LIJ's nine hospitals received the highest overall payment across the project's six years totaling $3,686,973, which is more than $1 million more than the second highest health system. In the past year, CMS awarded North Shore-LIJ $906,955 in P4P incentives, North Shore-LIJ officials said.
Michael Dowling, the health system's president and chief executive officer, said North Shore-LIJ is proud of the clinical and monetary awards the system has received. "While the recognition and economic incentives are substantial, as healthcare providers we are motivated by making sure that patient care continues to improve," he said. "The evidence of the care delivered is the true reward."
The nine North Shore-LIJ hospitals to receive awards were: North Shore University Hospital, Glen Cove, Southside, Staten Island University Hospital, LIJ Medical Center, Huntington Hospital, Franklin Hospital, Forest Hills Hospital and Plainview Hospital.
Controversy has persisted over the use of P4P to drive quality care, with some arguing the use of monetary incentives could cause providers to avoid treating sicker patients.
A report released Oct. 27 American College of Surgeons (ACS) suggests P4P does not result in providers cherry-picking patients, nor does it cause a negative impact on patient outcomes. Researchers based their study on 1,768 patient cases for eight different types of major operations. They also investigated data from databases kept by the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. on surgeries that were performed at three New York City hospitals from 2007 through 2010.
[See also: Surgeons' report shows P4P doesn't lead to cherry-picking.]
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