April 29 (Bloomberg) -- Senator Max Baucus said there is “not much disagreement” among lawmakers on the Finance Committee about using Medicare’s payment system to reward hospitals for the quality of their health care.

Republican and Democratic members want to force changes that could slow rising health-care costs and improve care, Baucus told reporters after a closed-door panel meeting.

Baucus plans three Finance Committee meetings as he seeks to gain bipartisan consensus for ways to revamp the U.S. health- care system. Medicare, the federal government’s health insurance plan for the elderly and disabled, covers about 44 million people. The plan’s payment rates and policies may be a model for private insurers.

“There were a lot of questions on how quickly to implement things. Is the pace right, the number of years right,” Baucus said in Washington after the meeting. “Senators are trying to figure out proper implementation.”

Baucus, a Montana Democrat, and Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the committee’s ranking Republican, yesterday released a draft of options for changing how Medicare pays hospitals, doctors and private insurers that sell Medicare Advantage plans. Medicare will spend about $440 billion this year to care for beneficiaries.

Proposals included bonuses for primary-care doctors and payment cuts for hospitals that don’t meet nationally recognized standards of care. Medicare now pays hospitals for submitting data about how often they meet the standards, not for reaching the quality guidelines.

“There wasn’t a lot of disagreement about what was a problem,” Grassley said. “There may be disagreement on how to handle it.”

The Finance Committee has jurisdiction over government health programs and will be writing much of the legislation on how to extend medical coverage to everyone in the U.S., a goal of President Barack Obama.

Baucus has said he wants the Finance Committee to debate a measure in June and send it to the Senate floor for a July vote.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aliza Marcus in Washington at amarcus8@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 29, 2009 21:30 EDT