Upcoming rules and benchmarks concerning the monitoring of and the payment for surgical infections.

There has been a good deal of dialogue about pay for performance and linking outcomes with reimbursement, especially given the recent national health care legislation. Many such concerns are caused by upcoming changes that have been outlined in the Affordable Care Act. This article discusses these upcoming changes and reviews some of the literature that supports them, specifically those related to surgical infections. Likewise, the lack of support for some of these changes in the academic literature is discussed. Finally, some of the proposed key benchmarks and the methodologies behind the design of those benchmarks are discussed.