Obama: Base health care payments on quality, not quantity

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama wants to cut health care costs by reducing unnecessary treatments, tests and hospital visits that rack up big bills.

Obama on Wednesday will launch what the White House calls a Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network. The White House says more than 2,800 health care providers, patients and consumer groups have agreed to take part.

The goal is to tie more payments for health care services to the quality – not quantity – of services rendered. Earlier this year the administration set a goal to tie 30 percent of Medicare payments to quality and value, but Obama wants to go further.

Obama will announce the new network on Wednesday during a speech marking the fifth anniversary of Obama’s health care law, the Affordable Care Act.