Will Medicare's quality incentives be big enough to make a difference?

Incentives are among the quality issues coming to the fore as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services prepares to hand out bonuses and penalties based on how hospitals perform.  

Reuters: Medicare Reimbursement Incentive Less Than Effective
Record-keeping for a patient complication used by Medicare to determine how much hospitals get reimbursed is not comprehensive or accurate, undermining the policy's value, a new study suggests. In an effort to get more for their money, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) -- as well as some individual insurance companies -- don't reimburse hospitals for certain conditions listed on billing records that are costly and believed to be preventable (Pittman, 9/4).

Kaiser Health News: Are Medicare's New Quality Incentives Large Enough to Change Hospital Behavior?
With Medicare poised next month to give bonuses and penalties to hospitals based on how they ranked in quality standards, a number of health policy experts are questioning whether the amounts of money at stake are large enough to make a difference" (Rau, 9/4).