NQF Upholds Endorsement of Planned Readmissions Measures 

Washington, DC – The National Quality Forum (NQF) Board of Directors has upheld endorsement of three measures addressing planned readmissions, following an ad-hoc review period.

The ad-hoc review was requested after the measure developer, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, made material changes that impacted the scientific acceptability of the measures. Following further review, the Board of Directors concluded that the measures should remain endorsed.

NQF is a voluntary consensus standards-setting organization. Any party may request reconsideration of any of the three endorsed measures listed below by submitting an appeal no later than March 1 (to submit an appeal, go to the NQF Measure Database . For an appeal to be considered, the notification must include information clearly demonstrating that the appellant has interests directly and materially affected by the NQF-endorsed recommendations and that the NQF decision has had (or will have) an adverse effect on those interests.

Endorsed Measures 

• 0330: Hospital 30-day all-cause risk-standardized readmission rate following heart failure hospitalization for patients 18 and older (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
• 0505: Hospital 30-day all-cause risk-standardized readmission rate (RSRR) following acute myocardial infarction (AMI) hospitalization (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
• 1551: Hospital-level 30-day all-cause risk-standardized readmission rate (RSRR) following elective primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)

NQF operates under a three-part mission to improve the quality of American healthcare by: 

• building consensus on national priorities and goals for performance improvement and working in partnership to achieve them;  
• endorsing national consensus standards for measuring and publicly reporting on performance; and  
• promoting the attainment of national goals through education and outreach programs.