CMS Cuts Excellent Health Outcomes for All Reward Program

For contract year 2027, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) removed the Excellent Health Outcomes for All reward (f/k/a Health Equity Index reward) as part of the Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D final rule. The objective of these measures was to incentivize better outcomes for a certain segment of Medicare enrollees. As part of the final rule, CMS will instead use the historical reward factor that promotes consistently high performance for all enrollees across all quality measures, while it explores options for simplifying the Star Ratings methodology.