Provider Reimbursement Following the Affordable Care Act.

Abstract

Decreasing health care expenditures has been one of the main objectives of the Affordable Care Act. To achieve this goal, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has been tasked with experimenting with provider reimbursement methods in an attempt to increase quality, while decreasing costs. The purpose of this research was to study the effects of the Affordable Care Act on physician reimbursement rates from CMS to determine the most cost-effective method of delivering health care services. The CMS has experimented with payment methods in an attempt to increase cost-effectiveness. Medicare has offered shared cost-savings incentives to reward quality care to both primary care providers and preventative services. The CMS has determined fee-for-service payments obsolete, opting instead for a value-based purchasing method of payment. Although a universal payment method has yet to be adopted, it has been evident that a value-based purchasing model and preventative care can be used to decrease health care expenditure.