“To ensure that we’re using measures that truly improve care, it’s important to hear from the field about their experiences with measurement,” said Helen Burstin, MD, NQF’s chief scientific officer. “NQF is committed to working with those on frontlines of delivering patient care to capture this vital feedback.”

NQF is launching an initial feedback pilot to determine the impact of three hospital cost measures. The measures, NQF #2431, 2436, and 2579, assess hospital-level risk-standardized payment associated with a 30-day episode of care for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure, and pneumonia, respectively. In August 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized the measures for AMI and heart failure for use in the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program beginning in fiscal year 2021. CMS previously adopted all three measures for the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program.

NQF endorsed these measures with conditions that included NQF soliciting feedback from stakeholders on the implementation of these measures, in particular, any unintended consequences. NQF’s initial pilot encourages stakeholders to share their experiences with these measures through the current commenting tool available on the NQF website. NQF will share this feedback with relevant standing committees tasked with evaluating measures for endorsement.

Contact Information
Please contact NQF’s measure maintenance team with any questions.