Development of HCBS Quality Measures Webinar

Dear Colleagues,

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), and Mathematica Policy Research (Mathematica) invite you to join us onWednesday, September 9th from Noon – 1:30pm ET, for a webinar describing our work to develop quality measures for Medicaid fee-for-service beneficiaries using home- and community-based services (HCBS). This effort continued the development of measures of potentially avoidable hospitalizations due to:

•  Severe pressure ulcers
•  Acute ambulatory care sensitive conditions (e.g., dehydration, urinary tract infections)
•  Chronic ambulatory care sensitive conditions (e.g., diabetes, COPD, CHF)

While this effort is funded through the national evaluation of the Money Follows the Person (MFP) Demonstration, these measures were originally identified by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) as a set of recommended quality measures for the HCBS population. Under the direction of CMS and ASPE, Mathematica has further updated these measures by:

•  Refining the measure definitions to more directly reflect the HCBS care experience
•  Developing risk-adjustment models to produce more equitable state-level comparisons or for program comparisons across states (such as those used by CMS in demonstration evaluations)
•  Establishing approaches for addressing small sample sizes (e.g., minimum case sizes, reliability-adjustment)
•  Identifying strategies for benchmarking and display of results 

To register, visit: http://event.on24.com/wcc/r/1025399/2B079896CC4EBBA407C3A5297E7A4FB4

Two reports summarizing preliminary phases of this work are or will be available at CMS’ Money Follows the Person website:

Risk Adjustment of HCBS Composite Measures, Volume 1. This report describes the process used to develop risk-adjustment models for the HCBS acute and chronic composite measures, including testing and validation results, and final recommended models. This report finds that:

•  Risk adjustment can shift a state’s ranking on the HCBS composite measures
•  State performance on the acute and chronic composite is not always aligned

Development of an HCBS Pressure Ulcer Measure, Volume 1 (coming soon). This report investigates several options for defining the HCBS pressure ulcer measure. The report concludes with:

•  An updated measure specification
•  Recommendations for further refinement, including risk adjustment

The MFP Demonstration aims to increase the use of HCBS and reduce reliance on institutional services as well as establish procedures to ensure the high quality of long-term services and supports provided in the community. Mathematica Policy Research is the national evaluator for the MFP Demonstration.

Questions about the September 9th webinar, reports, or this work in general can be directed to:

Effie George, Effie.George@cms.hhs.gov

Mike Smith, Michael.Smith1@cms.hhs.gov

D.E.B. Potter, D.E.B.Potter@hhs.gov

            Carol Irvin, CIrvin@mathematica-mpr.com