Dive Brief:
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The Leapfrog Group is opposing a CMS’ proposed rule on inpatient payment as a “significant threat to the transparency of the safety of U.S. hospitals.”
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The group, which advocates for hospital safety and transparency, is asking for co-signers on a letter it plans to send to CMS about the 2019 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) proposal, namely the intention to remove measures from the Inpatient Quality Reporting Program (IQR).
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The Leapfrog Group said removing the measures from IQR will hurt patient transparency and reduce penalties hospitals pay for errors and infections.
Dive Insight:
When announcing the 2019 proposed IPPS in April, CMS said the proposal would “remove unnecessary, redundant and process-driven quality measures from a number of quality reporting and pay-for-performance programs.”
The CMS plan is part of an overarching move by the Trump administration to reduce regulations. Physicians are generally in favor of efforts to reduce reporting burdens and red tape, but also acknowledge the importance of making certain quality measures public.
CMS said these measures will reduce administrative burdens for providers, including measures that acute care hospitals need to report. It said the reporting is duplicative and deals with five hospital quality and value-based purchasing programs.
Overall, the proposal would remove 19 measures and de-duplicate another 21 measures. However, CMS said these moves maintain “measures of hospital quality and patient safety.”
Created in 2005, the IQR partially bases Medicare’s hospital payments on errors, injuries and infections. CMS also publicly reports the information for patients to use when deciding on hospitals.
In its proposal, CMS plans to remove infections measures from the IQR and remove patient safety composite measures that includes rates of accidents and injuries in hospitals
The Leapfrog Group criticized the move and pointed to a study that found infections cost the economy $147 billion annually, as well as “untold suffering and grief.”
Beyond transparency concerns, Leapfrog said the change will reduce penalties hospitals face for infections and errors. “Infection and other safety measures should be included in all payment programs, because quality and cost-effectiveness are nullified when safety is absent. No hospital should be paid a reward for excellence if they have a high preventable infection rate,” it said.
Leapfrog said it is accepting signatures on the letter it will send to CMS until June 22.