Public Listening Opportunity: Physician Cost Measures and Patient Relationship Codes Technical Expert Panel

CMS has contracted with Acumen, LLC to develop episode-based cost measures to meet the requirements of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). Acumen is convening the Physician Cost Measures and Patient Relationship Categories (PCMP) Technical Expert Panel (TEP) to continue activities performed under the previous MACRA Episode Groups and Resource Use Measures contract, and adds the maintenance of the Medicare Spending Per Beneficiary (MSPB) Hospital measure and evaluation of the Patient Relationship Codes.

The PCMP TEP will convene for a two-day meeting on February 6 and 7, 2020. This meeting will be open to the public with a listen-only option, and stakeholders and members of the public are invited to listen in on the considerations that inform the approach to cost measure development. Please feel free to share this message with anyone you believe may be interested.

During the two-day meeting, Acumen will seek input from TEP members on topics including measure prioritization and cost-quality considerations for future waves of measure development, evaluation of the patient relationship codes, episode framework for chronic measures currently in development (i.e., Diabetes and Asthma/Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), maintenance and re-evaluation of new and existing cost measures, and re-evaluation of the MSPB Hospital measure.

The times and dates for the two-day meeting are listed below.

• Thursday, February 6, 2020, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM ET
• Friday, February 7, 2020, 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM ET

Please click on the following link to register for both days: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/2889112341636825868

For information about the measure development process and development activities undertaken in previous years, including prior TEP meetings, please see this summary on the MACRA Feedback Page.

If you would like to be notified of the measure development activities, including field testing, please join our mailing list.

If you have any questions about measure development or the TEP, please contact Acumen at macra-tep-support@acumenllc.com. If you have questions about the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), the cost performance category or cost measures currently in use in MIPS, please contact the Quality Payment Program Service Center via telephone at 1-866-288-8292 or via email at qpp@cms.hhs.gov.