Pay for Performance: Are Hospitals Becoming More Efficient in Improving Their Patient Experience?

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) changed the way hospitals interact with patients when it implemented a pay-for-performance (P4P) system. Under this system, a financial reward or penalty is based in part on measures of patient experience. The program seeks to reward healthcare providers who expand their focus from solely delivering a highly technical set of services that improves the patient's health to creating an atmosphere that makes hospitalization more humane and respectful of patients' values and preferences.