NQF’s Measure Applications Partnership Issues Final Measure Recommendations for Federal Healthcare Programs 

Washington, DC – The National Quality Forum’s (NQF) Measure Applications Partnership (MAP) today submitted recommendations to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for 74 performance measures under consideration for use in 16 federal healthcare programs. These measures are critical building blocks for national pay-for-performance and public reporting programs, which affect 55 million Americans enrolled in Medicare and their healthcare providers. This is the sixth consecutive year that MAP has submitted guidance to HHS on standardized performance measures.

“MAP brings the private and public sectors together to inform decisions on measures used in Medicare and Medicaid—the nation’s largest insurance plans—and come to consensus on how to increase value and reduce both cost and burden,” said Helen Burstin, MD, MPH, NQF’s chief scientific officer. “In an important step, this year MAP also will provide recommendations for the future removal of measures to strengthen current measure sets used in federal programs.”

MAP’s recommendations are the result of an intensive two-month review by expert workgroups that consider measures for use in clinician, hospital, and post-acute care and long-term care settings. MAP’s Coordinating Committee synthesizes feedback from experts and the public before submitting final recommendations to HHS. Important themes from this year’s review of measures under consideration include:

• Identifying the need for high-value measures, including a focus on composite measures, outcomes, and patient-reported outcomes;
• Balancing the effort required for data collection and reporting with the potential to improve quality and patient outcomes; and,
• Encouraging shared accountability and improving cooperation and communication across the healthcare system.

MAP works in a transparent manner with a carefully balanced composition of participants representing all areas of healthcare, including consumers, purchasers, health plans, clinicians and providers, suppliers, accreditation and certification entities, communities and states, and the federal government. More than 150 experts from 90 organizations who regularly use measures and measurement information participated in MAP discussions.

MAP will issue four final reports with recommendations on overall measure sets and guidance on measure reduction in federal programs. The reports on the post-acute and long-term care and hospital settings are due to HHS February 15, and the reports on clinician programs and cross-cutting themes are due March 15.

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The National Quality Forum leads national collaboration to improve health and healthcare quality through measurement. Learn more at www.qualityforum.org.