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Medicare Value-based Payment Reform: Priorities for Transforming Rural Health Systems
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Medicare Value-based Payment Reform: Priorities for Transforming Rural Health Systems

Keith J Mueller, Charles Alfero, Andrew F Coburn, Jennifer P Lundblad, A Clinton MacKinney, Timothy D McBride, Paula Weigel and RUPRI Health Panel
Policy Paper,  P2015-3, RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis
11/2015

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Abstract

In January, 2015, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Burwell announced new goals and timelines for moving Medicare reimbursement from fee-for-service to value-based payment. These payment changes are driving delivery system reforms (DSR) by making health care organizations more accountable for patients' health as well as population and community health. Payment and delivery system reform, however, is concentrated in urban centers, and Medicare rural payment policies that were designed to strengthen rural health providers and systems are now complicating payment and delivery system reform in rural areas. The inclusion of rural providers in Medicare payment reform is critical for the program and for the 23 percent of Medicare beneficiaries who reside in rural areas. Rural Medicare beneficiaries should have the same opportunity as their urban counterparts to benefit from payment reform's positive effects including strengthened primary care, embedded care coordination, and improved clinical quality. In this paper, we describe five recommendations to facilitate rural inclusion in value-based payment and delivery system reform.
Budgets/Expenditures Government Health care policy Rural Health Research Gateway

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