To help achieve better care, smarter spending, and healthier people, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Burwell is working in concert with private, public, and non-profit sectors to transform the nation's health system to emphasize value over volume. HHS has set a goal of tying 30 percent of Medicare fee-for-service payments to quality or value through alternative payment models by 2016 and 50 percent by 2018. HHS has also set a goal of tying 85 percent of all Medicare fee-for-service to quality or value by 2016 and 90 percent by 2018. To support these efforts, HHS has launched the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network to help advance the work being done across sectors to increase the adoption of value-based payments and alternative payment models.

If you would like more information or wish to participate in the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network, please visit the registration web page. The names of registered organizations will be made public.

Background
All alternative payment models and payment reforms that seek to deliver better care at lower cost share a common pathway for success: providers, payers, and others in the health care system must make fundamental changes in their day-to-day operations that improve quality and reduce the cost of health care. Making operational changes will be viable and attractive only if new alternative payment models and payment reforms are broadly adopted by a critical mass of payers. When providers encounter new payment strategies for one payer but not others, the incentives to change are weak. When payers align their efforts, the incentives to change are stronger and the obstacles to change are reduced.

The Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network will bring together private payers, providers, employers, state partners, consumer groups, individual consumers, and many others to accelerate the transition to alternative payment models.

The Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network will:

• Serve as a convening body to facilitate joint implementation of new models of payment and care delivery,
• Identify areas of agreement around movement toward alternative payment models and how best to analyze data and report on these new payment models,
• Collaborate to generate evidence, share approaches, and remove barriers,
• Develop common approaches to core issues such as beneficiary attribution, financial models, benchmarking, quality and performance measurement, risk adjustment, and other topics raised for discussion, and
• Create implementation guides for payers, purchasers, providers, and consumers.

All payers, providers, employers, states, consumer groups, individual consumers, and others are invited to participate. Participants will have the opportunity to join workgroups and learning sessions on increasing adoption of alternative payment models and other care delivery models. Most meetings of the Network will occur virtually by teleconference or webinar. In-person meetings will occur in the Washington D.C. area. Information collected during workgroups will be summarized and presented back to all participants in the Network. The Network will be convened by a contractor which will consider the views and recommendations of the Network when performing contracted activities.

Working together, HHS, private sector payers, providers, employers, states, consumer groups, individual consumers, and other partners will help health care payments transition more quickly toward alternative payment models -- a critical step toward better care, smarter spending, and healthier people.

If you would like more information or wish to participate in the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network, registration is now open. Registered organizations will be made public.