In January 2015, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) boldly announced a plan to tie 30 percent of traditional fee-for-service, Medicare payments to quality or value through alternative payment models such as accountable care organizations (ACOs) and bundled payments by 2016, and tying 50 percent of payments to these models by the end of 2018.
HHS also set a goal of tying 85 percent of all traditional Medicare payments to quality or value by 2016 and 90 percent by 2018 through initiatives such as the Hospital Value Based Purchasing and the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Programs.
