IOM Advises Medicare Against Geographic Value Index

In July 2013, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) advised the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) against linking Medicare payments via a “geographic value index” to the quality and cost of care in geographic regions. Doing so could reward low-value providers in high-value regions and punish high-value providers in low-value areas. The IOM recommendation was released in “Variation in Health Care Spending: Target Decision Making, Not Geography.” The IOM has been studying variations in Medicare spending. Proposals in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) called for Medicare to examine the role . . .