Can monetary incentives help improve quality of care in nursing homes?
The purpose of this CMS demonstration project is to test whether monetary incentives may be used to improve the quality of care provided to beneficiaries in nursing homes. The demonstration will run for three years, in four to five states with approximately 50 nursing homes within each state (Abt Associates 2006). The demonstration will use monetary incentives which will be paid for high performance or a high level of improvement in the quality of care provided to beneficiaries. According to Abt Associates, the consultants which CMS have contracted to design the demonstration, the size of the performance payments will be determined at the state level based on the reduction in Medicare expenditures across certain types of services for residents in participating homes. For example, costs to Medicare may be lowered through reduced rates of hospital admission. Medicare program savings will be estimated by comparing the rate of change in certain Medicare expenditures for Medicare beneficiar
