The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) last week released seven sets of “core quality measures” developed in conjunction with the Core Quality Measures Collaborative. The goal of the Collaborative is to achieve multi-payer alignment of quality measure sets to reduce the administrative onus on physicians doing the reporting.
To help ensure our members have input, the North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS) has established the Performance Measurement Task Force, which will help inform advocacy work with stakeholders to ensure fair and appropriate use of quality and performance measures that are as minimally burdensome to physicians as possible.
The national Collaborative included CMS, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the American Medical Association (AMA), National Quality Forum (NQF), national specialty societies and others. The core measures are comprised of the following seven categories:

  • Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), Patient Centered Medical homes (PCMH) and Primary Care
  • Cardiology
  • Gastroenterology
  • HIV and Hepatitis C
  • Medical Oncology
  • Obstetrics and Gynecology
  • Orthopedics

In the announcement, CMS states “the guiding principles used by the Collaborative in developing the core measure sets are that they be meaningful to patients, consumers and physicians, while reducing variability in measure selection, collection burden and cost. The goal is to establish broadly agreed upon core measure sets that could be harmonized across both commercial and government payers.”
Commercial payers plan to implement the core measure sets as contracts come up for renewal, and The Collaborative plans to continue to meet to monitor and adjust the measure sets as needed.
CMS will use this work to inform their implementation process for the Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act (MACRA) through its rulemaking process, expected to begin this spring. See the full CMS announcement and review the measure lists here. A copy of AHIP’s corresponding news release is available here.