Dive Brief:
- As required by the ACA, CMS has begun developing tools to measure the quality of the new health plans sold in state and federal exchanges.
- CMS ratings criteria include measures of the plans' relative quality, price and health outcomes, as well as a survey assessing enrollee satisfaction, Modern Healthcare reports.
- The agency is now requesting input, due by Jan. 20, on ways to ensure the integrity of the rating system.
Dive Insight:
Developing quality ratings is almost always a painful process when the raters are imposing rules from the outside. Rather than simply going through the rote regulatory process, perhaps CMS could involve providers and health plans, not just by reading their comments, but by creating a pilot project testing out what works and what doesn't. Otherwise, we'll just have another quality scale to compete with countless others and sow further confusion.