Call for Public Comment (Due November 27, 2019): Development and Reevaluation of Outpatient Outcome Measures for the Merit-based Incentive Payment System

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is developing outcome measures for ambulatory care for the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). As part of this project, Yale New Haven Health Services Corporation/Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE) is developing a measure of acute cardiovascular-related admissions for patients with heart failure. CORE is inviting stakeholders and other interested members of the public to review and comment on the measure. This email serves as the call for public comment.

Specifically, CORE adapted for MIPS a measure of acute, unplanned hospital admissions for heart failure patients that CMS currently reports for Medicare Accountable Care Organizations. The re-specified measure for MIPS will assess each eligible clinician or clinician group’s acute cardiovascular-related admission rate relative to that of other MIPS participating clinicians or clinician groups with similar patients.

The purpose of the public comment period is to gain input from the widest possible array of interested parties. Public comment can elicit critical suggestions not previously considered by the contractor or stakeholders the contractor convened during measure development (e.g., national Technical Expert Panel [TEP] and Clinician Committee).

The specifications and results of the MIPS heart failure measure are outlined in the measure’s methodology report, which presents the approach to measure development, the measure specifications, and results of measure evaluation and testing. The measure methodology report is available in the ‘Downloads’ section at the link below.

Please email your comments to MIPSoutcomemeasures@yale.edu. Comments must be received by 11:59 PM EST on November 27, 2019. If you are providing comments on behalf of an organization, include the organization’s name and your contact information. If you are commenting as an individual, submit identifying or contact information. Any attachments should be in Microsoft Word, Excel, or PDF format. Do not include personal health information in your comments. For more information and to access the measure’s documents posted for comment, please visit https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/MMS/PC-Currently-Accepting-Comments.html. Please note that at the end of the public comment period, all comments will be posted on the website.

Please contact the CORE team at MIPSoutcomemeasures@yale.edu should you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Faseeha Altaf, MPH – Project Manager

Kasia Lipska, MD, MHS – Project Lead

Erica Spatz, MD, MHS – Project Lead

Elizabeth Drye, MD, SM – Senior Director, Quality Measurement Programs