“Dive Brief:
CMS carries over large amounts of funding available each year for programs measuring Medicare care quality and could devote more resources to tracking those programs because it “lacks complete information on its quality measurement funding and how it uses funding to achieve its strategic goals,” according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
CMS spent an average of $43 million a year on quality measurement programs between fiscal year 2009 and 2018. Agency officials told GAO they used the funds conservatively to make sure there were no gaps in future years…”
“Dive Insight:
As payers and providers embrace more value-based care and alternative payment models, how treatment quality is measured becomes a vital concern. CMS has only increased its reliance on payments that consider care quality metrics as it looks to push the industry out of a purely fee-for-service model.
But how care quality is measured has long been a contentious point. CMS is constantly refining its metrics and soliciting feedback. In 2017, the agency launched its Meaningful Measures initiative toward that end…” Read the full article here.
Source: CMS not appropriately tracking quality measure spending, objectives, GAO finds – By Ron Shinkman, September 23, 2019. Healthcare Dive.
