Performance Measurement Coordination Strategy for Hospice and Palliative Care 

Under law, as part of the new Medicare Hospice Quality Measurement Program, hospice programs will be required to publicly report quality data to the federal government beginning in 2014 or incur a financial penalty. This increased measurement focus, in addition to the growth of providers offering hospice and palliative care, creates impetus and opportunity for developing a performance measurement strategy for these services. In this report, the Measure Applications Partnership seeks to inform this strategy by focusing on measures that can make the biggest difference in improving hospice and palliative care from the patient’s perspective.