Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced on Jan. 26 that HHS has set new goals to transition Medicare reimbursements from volume to value. HHS intends to tie 30 percent of traditional, fee-for-service Medicare payments to quality or value by the end of 2016, and 50 percent by the end of 2018, through alternative payment models such as Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) or bundled payment arrangements. “In alternative payment models, providers are accountable for the quality and cost of care for the people and populations they serve, moving away from the new way of doing things,” Burwell wrote Jan. 26 in an HHS blog post. More details about the HHS goals are provided in the CMS fact sheet:  Better Care. Smarter Spending. Healthier People: Paying Providers for Value, Not Volume.