Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Explorer

The Affordable Care Act has recently funded several innovative programs aimed at improving Medicare quality while reducing costs.  A key part of these efforts is to link Medicare payment to the quality of care rather than the quantity, with the goal of moving away from fee-for-service payment models.

One such innovative program funded by the Affordable Care Act is the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) program. The Hospital VBP program adjusts hospital payments for Medicare based on performance across four domains of quality: clinical processes of care, patient experience of care, outcomes (includes mortality rates and patient safety indicators), and efficiency (Medicare spending per beneficiary).  While evaluation of initial data indicates that the program has been successful, with the majority of hospitals showing improved care and outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries (see http://blog.cms.gov/2014/12/18/cms-releases-data-on-quality-to-help-patients-choose-providers/), it is unclear how hospital performance varies across states or regions.

Map view showing rollover windows displaying scores for clinical processes of care, patient experience of care, outcomes, efficiency, spending, and total performance

HealthLandscape created the Hospital Value-Based Performance (VBP) Explorer as an interactive mapping tool that allows users to visualize the geographic variation of the four quality domain scores, spending scores, and total performance score for hospitals in California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, and New York.  Hospitals are displayed as points colored red (lowest quartile of hospitals), yellow (second and third quartile of hospitals), or green (fourth quartile of hospitals), allowing users to quickly compare performance across hospitals.  Users can also filter the data displayed on the map based on whether hospitals received a penalty for having a low total performance score or excess readmissions. In addition, users can use the Stats tool to perform statistical analyses to explore relationships between hospital performance scores and population health indicators for the county in which the hospital is located.

Stats tool showing relationship between total performance score by hospital and county-level percent renter occupied housing for the county in which a hospital is located

You can use the Hospital Value-Based Performance (VBP) Explorer at:
http://www.healthlandscape.org/HVBPExplorer/map.cfm

To learn more about the Population Health Mapper, join one of regular webinars at

http://www.healthlandscape.org/Webinar-Training.cfm