Part V Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services 42 CFR Parts 422 and 480 Medicare Program ; Hospital Inpatient Value - Based Purchasing Program

and collect quality information. We also require time to process this information accurately. The methodology proposed in the Hospital Inpatient VBP Program proposed rule for calculating the improvement score relies on a comparison of the hospital’s performance during the performance period against its performance during a baseline period rather than a comparison of the hospital’s performance during a particular year against its performance during a previous year (as was outlined in the 2007 Report to Congress). We stated that we planned to propose future annual updates to the baseline period through future rulemaking. We recognize that comparing a payment year’s performance period with the previous year’s performance period may be a better estimate of incremental