With the kick-off of the first year of the hospital value-based purchasing (VBP) program this coming fall, CMS recently announced additional FAQs [PDF] to assist hospitals in getting ready. Although the concept of valued-based payments has been around since 2005, the Affordable Care Act specifically required a hospital value-based purchasing (VBP) program be implemented. This program rewards hospitals based on data collected through Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) program for the provision of high quality care measured by their performance or improvement on targeted quality measures. Specifically, the VBP Rule provides inpatient hospitals incentive payments based on how closely they follow clinical best practices and how well hospitals enhance the patient care experience. These payment adjustments go into effect on October 1, 2012. The VBP FAQs address both technical issues and general questions in the following areas...