Some providers who are juggling 50 to 100 different measures across various payers have something to look forward to: a total of 21 uniform measures that they'd report to all payers. That was a key take-away from the Feb. 16 CMS press call about the core measures collaborative, a quality initiative that Medicare and private payers will use.
During the call, representatives from a variety of industry stake holders including CMS, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and the American Academy of Family Physicians announced the initiative and unveiled
the initial set of core measures:
- Accountable Care Organizations, Patient Centered Medical Homes and Primary Care.
- Cardiology.
- Gastroenterology.
- HIV and Hepatitis C.
- Medical oncology.
- Obstetrics and gynecology.
- Orthopedics.
Providers should expect intense activity around quality programs, and they should expect it to start next year. For example, private payers will use the contract process to implement the new measures starting in 2017, said Carmella Bocchino, AHIP's executive vice president.
CMS will use a public rule-making process this year as the first step to implementation, said Patrick Conway, M.D., acting principal deputy administrator and chief medical officer, CMS. In response to a question about the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), Conway said the first performance year would likely be 2017.
Check upcoming issues of Part B News for more on this ground-breaking initiative.