quality measures

Subscribe to quality measures

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced plans to hold a “Quality Summit” to foster dialogue between government leaders and health care industry stakeholders on how HHS quality programs “can be further evaluated, adapted, and ultimately streamlined to deliver a value-based care model focused on improving outcomes for American patients.”  Ultimately, the…

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has released its annual report to Congress on “Medicare and the Health Care Delivery System.” This year’s report includes recommendations for changes to emergency department services policies, along with analyses of potential changes that would impact physicians, medical equipment suppliers, post-acute care providers, and others.  Highlights include the following:…

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published its proposed rule updating the Medicare acute inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) and long-term care hospital (LTCH) prospective payment system (PPS) for fiscal year (FY) 2019. The proposed rule also includes a request for information (RFI) on ways CMS can enhance interoperability in the health care system, along with a comment solicitation on ways to improve price transparency.  The agency will accept comments on the proposed rule and RFI through June 25, 2018.  The following are highlights of the sweeping regulation.

1.75% Increase in Medicare Acute Hospital Rates. CMS projects that total IPPS payments will increase by about $4.1 billion in FY 2019 compared to FY 2018 levels under the proposed rule.  The IPPS national standardized amount would increase by 1.75%, based on a projected 2.8% market basket update that is reduced by a 0.8% multifactor productivity adjustment; further reduced by 0.75% as mandated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA); and increased by 0.5% as required by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). CMS also proposes to boost uncompensated care payments, capital payments, and low-volume hospital payments.
Continue Reading CMS Proposes FY 2019 Medicare IPPS/LTCH Rates and Policy Changes

CMS has scheduled a September 15, 2016 Special Open Door Forum call on the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 (IMPACT Act). This call will provide an overview of the IMPACT Act’s requirement for standardization of patient assessment data across post-acute care settings, and solicit input on the ways the IMPACT Act can…

On April 19, 2016, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health is holding a hearing entitled “Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015: Examining Physician Efforts to Prepare for Medicare Payment Reforms.”  The hearing will focus on major physician organizations’ investments in the development of alternative payment models, quality measures, and practice improvements.

CMS and America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) recently released seven sets of physician clinical quality measures as part of a “Core Quality Measures Collaborative” intended to align quality measures among payers and reduce the reporting burden on providers. Through the Collaborative, CMS, various commercial plans, Medicare and Medicaid managed care plans, purchasers, and provider and consumer organizations are working together to identify core sets of quality measures that payers have committed to use for quality reporting as soon as feasible. The core measures announced February 17 are the first release from the Collaborative, which intends to add and update the measure sets over time. The initial measures are in the following seven measure sets:
Continue Reading CMS, AHIP Release Multi-Payer Physician Quality Measure Sets

The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) requires CMS to develop quality measures that will apply to Medicare payments to physicians when new Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Medicare alternative payment model (APM) provisions go into effect (MIPS and APM payment adjustments begin in 2019).  Pursuant to this mandate, CMS has…

On November 20, 2015, CMS is publishing two notices requesting public comments on the development of surveys regarding patient and family member experiences with the care received in (1) inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs), and (2) long-term care hospitals (LTCHs).  
Continue Reading CMS Seeking Comments on Medicare IRF/LTCH Patient Experience Surveys

On October 21, 2015, CMS is hosting a provider call to discuss the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation (IMPACT) Act of 2014.  The call will cover:

  • Legislative requirements of the IMPACT Act related to the use of standardized data, quality measures, and resource use and other measures for skilled nursing facilities, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, long-term

…

On September 9, 2015, CMS is hosting a webinar on the development of quality measures for Medicaid fee-for-service beneficiaries using home- and community-based services (HCBS).  Specifically, the webinar will discuss efforts to establish measures of potentially avoidable hospitalizations due to:  severe pressure ulcers; acute ambulatory care sensitive conditions (e.g., dehydration, urinary tract infections); and…

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has released its June 2015 Report to the Congress on Medicare and the Health Care Delivery System. The report includes a series of recommendations on Medicare hospital short-stay policy, in response in part to hospital concerns about related Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) Program audits and appeals and the financial impact on beneficiaries associated with the growing use of outpatient observation day status. Specifically, MedPAC recommends that:
Continue Reading MedPAC Report to Congress on Medicare and the Health Care Delivery System

CMS has published corrections to its final 2015 Medicare physician fee schedule rule. Among other things, the rule reflects a previously-announced correction to the conversion factor for the first quarter of 2015 ($35.7547), revises the April 1 – December 31, 2015 conversion factor to $28.1872 (assuming that Congress does not take action to avert…

CMS has released the “2015 National Impact Assessment of Quality Measures Report,” which examines the effectiveness of quality measures used in CMS hospital, ambulatory, and post-acute quality programs. The report found that 95% of 119 publicly reported measure rates across seven quality reporting programs showed improvement from 2006 to 2012, with process measures…

In December 2014, CMS released a 329-page list of quality measures under consideration for the Medicare program. In a January 13, 2015 comment letter, MedPAC observes that volume of measures under consideration “reinforces our concerns that Medicare’s provider-level measurement activities are accelerating without regard to the costs or benefits of an ever-increasing number of measures.” MedPAC suggests that CMS is “relying on too many clinical process measures that are, at best, weakly correlated with health outcomes.” Moreover, including numerous process measures could reinforce “undesirable payment incentives in FFS Medicare to increase the volume of services and is overly burdensome on providers to report, while yielding limited information to support clinical improvement or beneficiary choice.” While acknowledging that CMS includes more measures than will be adopted in order to solicit comments, MedPAC urges CMS to “carefully consider whether each additional measure would simply reinforce or exacerbate the current system’s problems.”

The following is MedPAC’s count of measures under consideration (note that the largest number of measures under review this year apply to accountable care organizations):Continue Reading MedPAC Voices Concerns about Growing Volume, Burden of Medicare Quality Measures

On January 15-16, 2015, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) is meeting to discuss a number of Medicare topics, including, among others: post-acute care trends; payment updates for a number of provider types; relative costs of Medicare Advantage, accountable care organizations, and fee-for-service Medicare; hospital short stay policy; and quality measurement.

CMS is inviting quality measure suggestions for potential use in the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) and other physician quality programs. Measure suggestions will be accepted on an ongoing basis, with measures submitted prior to June 15, 2015 eligible to be considered for inclusion in the PQRS as early as 2017.