How VBP Works
The SNF VBP program works by withholding 2% of a SNF’s Medicare Part A payments. Based on the SNF’s performance score, a portion of this withheld amount (between 50% and 70%) is redistributed as incentive payments. This means that a higher performance score can lead to a positive adjustment in your Medicare Part A fee-for-service rates, while a lower score can result in a reduction.

The program is a pay-for-performance initiative by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that adjusts a skilled nursing facility’s (SNF’s) Medicare Part A payments based on the quality of care it provides. Beginning in FY 2026, the program is expanding to include four quality measures, moving beyond the previous single measure of all-cause hospital readmissions.

Performance Score Reports
With availability of the August 2025 Performance Score Reports (PSRs) for the fiscal year (FY) 2026 on iQIES, nursing homes can now see how their Fiscal Year 2026 Medicare Part A fee-for-service rates will be impacted by the recently expanded Value Based Purchasing (VBP) program.

These VBP reports only reflect the first step in expansion of this program, which will be a multifaceted process to be implemented over the next three years.

Program Expansion
Beginning in the FY 2026 Program year, the SNF VBP Program is expanding to assess performance on multiple quality measures rather than a single measure of all-cause hospital readmissions. For the FY 2026 Program year, performance in the SNF VBP Program is based on performance across four quality measures:

• SNF 30-Day All-Cause Readmission Measure (SNFRM)
• Skilled Nursing Facility Healthcare-Associated Infections Requiring Hospitalization (SNF HAI)
• Total Nursing Staff Turnover (Nursing Staff Turnover)
• Total Nurse Staffing Hours per Resident Day (Total Nurse Staffing)

The full roll out of this program will continue over the next few years and will incorporate other quality measures including:

• Discharge to the Community, Post Acute Care Measure for SNFs
• Percent of Residents Experiencing one or more Falls with Major Injury
• Discharge Function Score for SNFs
• Number of Hospitalization’s Per 1,000 long stay Resident Days
• Within Stay Potentially Preventable Readmission Measure

Now is the Time to Act
What you are doing now, will have an impact on your future VBP Performance Score. Coretactics’ consultants understand these VBP changes and are prepared to help you implement processes now to raise PSRs in the future.

To get started, give us a call today at 518-280-1343 or email us.

For more information regarding the PSR, please see the FY 2026 SNF VBP Program PSR User Guide on the CMS website. If you have yet to view your PSRs, log into iQIES using your Health Care Quality Information Systems (HCQIS) Access Roles and Profile (HARP) user ID and password.