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:
- Accountable Care Organizations, Patient Centered Medical Homes, and Primary Care
- Cardiology
- Gastroenterology
- HIV and Hepatitis C
- Medical Oncology
- Obstetrics and Gynecology
- Orthopedics
CMS currently uses measures from the each of the core sets, and the agency expects to issue regulations to implement new core measures across applicable Medicare quality programs as appropriate and eliminate redundant measures that are not part of the core set.
This article is presented for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal advice.
