One emerging trend in health care is a movement away from a fee-for-service payment system and toward rewarding performance or "value-based purchasing." In other words, it is an approach to attempt to pay providers for quality outcomes, rather than for quantity of services provided. This is a theme that permeates the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). One major example of PPACA’s encouragement of value-based purchasing is the establishment of the Medicare Shared Savings Program, which allows for sharing of saved costs by the government and providers through accountable care organizations (ACOs), while, for now, retaining the traditional fee-for-service payment model.
While there is the incentive for possible increased remuneration in arrangements designed to reward improving quality, one concern of providers is how to structure such arrangements without running afoul of the federal fraud and abuse laws.
