Dive Brief:
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The National Quality Forum's Measure Applications Partnership (MAP) has opened public comment until Wednesday evening for the standardized performance measures that HHS uses in federal programs.
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Comments will help shape what HHS selects for performance measures for federal public reporting and payment programs. That most notably includes the Merit-Based Incentive Payment (MIPS) program.
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After reviewing comments, MAP will make recommendations to HHS by Feb. 1 and publish reports then and in March.
Dive Insight:
NQF's MAP gets feedback from more than 135 healthcare leaders and experts, which includes consumers, purchasers, employers, health plans and providers. Also, MAP's coordinating committee and working groups, including hospitals, clinicians and post-acute care providers, help shape recommendations.
Created in 2011, MAP provides recommendations to HHS on programs like Medicare and Medicaid. "MAP's work fosters the use of a more uniform set of measures in federal programs and across the public and private sectors. This uniformity helps providers better identify key areas in which to improve quality; reduces wasteful data collection for hospitals, physicians and nurses; and helps to curb the proliferation of redundant measures which could confuse patients and payers," NQF said.
Shantanu Agrawal, NQF's president and CEO, said in a statement that MAP's recommendations "advance the nation's healthcare priorities and ensure that patients get the high-value care they need and deserve." Agrawal added: "NQF is committed to promoting measures that advance care, while also recognizing leading measure gaps that must be addressed."
Other programs involved in the public comment this year include:
- Home Health Quality Reporting Program
- Hospice Quality Reporting Program
- Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program
- Inpatient Psychiatric Facility Quality Reporting Program
- Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility Quality Reporting Program
- Long-Term Care Hospital Quality Reporting Program
- Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program for Eligible Hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals
- Medicare Shared Savings Program
- Prospective Payment System-Exempt Cancer Hospital Quality Reporting Program