[Federal Register: March 26, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 59)]
[Notices]
[Page 15884-15885]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr26mr04-84]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
[CMS-4071-N]
Medicare Program; Listening Session on Performance Measures for
Public Reporting on the Quality of Hospital Care--April 27, 2004
AGENCY: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), HHS.
ACTION: Notice of meeting.
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SUMMARY: This notice announces the first in a series of listening
sessions to discuss next steps in the development of an expanded set of
performance measures for public reporting on the quality of hospital
care. Health care consumers, payers, plans, providers, purchasers and
other interested parties are invited to attend this session to present
their individual views. The opinions and alternatives provided during
this session (and subsequent listening sessions) will assist us in our
collaboration with the National Voluntary Hospital Reporting Initiative
(NVHRI), as well as in our other hospital quality reporting and
improvement efforts. Attendance at the listening session is free and
open to the public, but advance registration is strongly encouraged.
DATES: Meeting Date: The listening session announced in this notice
will be held on Tuesday, April 27, 2004, from 9 a.m. until noon.
Comment Deadline: Written comments must be received by July 30,
2004.
ADDRESSES: The listening session will be held at the Hilton Logan
Airport, 85 Terminal Road, Boston, MA 02128; (617) 568-6700.
Written Statements or Comments: We will accept written comments,
questions or other statements, not to exceed three single-spaced, typed
pages that are received by July 30, 2004. Send written comments,
questions, or other statements to via mail to Lisa Lang, Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services, Quality Measurement and Health Assessment
Group, Mailstop S3-24-14, 7500 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland
21244-1850; or via email to lisa.lang@cms.hhs.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lisa Lang, (410) 786-1182. You may
also send inquiries via email to llang@cms.hhs.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
In December 2002, the American Hospital Association (AHA),
Federation of American Hospitals (FAH), Association of American Medical
Colleges (AAMC) joined the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of
Hospital Organizations (JCAHO) and CMS in the development of the
National Voluntary Hospital Reporting Initiative (NVHRI), a voluntary
initiative to collect and report hospital quality performance
information. This collaboration expanded to include the National
Quality Forum (NQF), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ),
American Medical Association, Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project,
American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) American Federation of
Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), and other
external stakeholders. The collaborators support this initiative as the
beginning of an ongoing effort to make hospital performance information
more accessible to the public, payers, and providers of care and to
stimulate the adoption of quality improvement strategies. As part of
the NVHRI, hospitals across the country are currently voluntarily
reporting a ``starter set'' of 10 clinical performance measures for
three clinical conditions (heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia)
on the CMS Web site http://www.cms.hhs.gov.
In furtherance of this effort, we intend to engage the broad
stakeholder community to identify its wishes for what should be
included in an expanded set of measures for hospital public reporting.
With input from the public and private sectors and from consumers, we
will identify a set of measures that are both robust and of high
priority to these stakeholders. The collaborators will host five
listening sessions for this purpose. Sessions will be conducted in
Boston, Orlando, Dallas, San Francisco, and Chicago. More detailed
information about the second and subsequent meetings will be presented
in another Federal Register notice.
The discussion at the Boston listening session will draw upon, but
not be limited to, the priority areas for measurement of clinical
quality performance identified by the National Quality Forum, the
Institute of Medicine, and others would like to receive about hospital
quality of care. We anticipate that these listening sessions will help
identify priority areas for assessing clinical quality of care, some of
which have performance measures that are ready for the immediate next
phase of public reporting and others, where the measures will need
refinement or final testing. We also expect that some areas of interest
will require additional research and development. After reviewing the
set of measures determined to be appropriate for public reporting, we
will ask the National Quality Forum to formally consider any measures
that it has not yet endorsed.
The listening sessions are a key element of the CMS Hospital
Quality Initiative. The Hospital Quality Initiative uses a variety of
tools to stimulate and support a significant improvement in the quality
of hospital care. The initiative aims to refine and standardize
hospital data, data transmission, and performance measures to construct
a single robust, prioritized, and standard quality measure set for
hospitals. Our ultimate goal is that all private and public purchasers,
oversight and accrediting entities, payers, and providers of hospital
care would voluntarily use the same measures in their public reporting
activities.
Through the listening sessions, we expect to be able to identify a
robust and comprehensive measure set for hospital public reporting, and
thereby support the efforts of the NVHRI, as well as the CMS Quality
Improvement Organization (QIO) program and other CMS hospital quality
improvement and reporting efforts. The listening sessions will provide
a unique opportunity to consult with a broad and diverse set of public
and private stakeholders to assess the face validity and demand for
measures to be proposed for the next and subsequent expansions of the
current public reporting activity.
In advance of the meeting, participants may wish to consult the CMS
Hospital Quality Initiative Web site (http://www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/hospital/
) to learn more about the NVHRI and other activities related
to the CMS Hospital Quality Initiative. Participants may also wish to
review
[[Page 15885]]
relevant reports of the National Quality Forum (such as ``National
Voluntary Consensus Standards for Hospital Care: An Initial Performance
Measure Set'' and ``Reaching the Tipping Point: Measuring and Reporting
Quality Using the NQF-Endorsed Hospital Care Measures'') and the
Institute of Medicine (such as ``Priority Areas for National Action:
Transforming Health Care Quality''). Synopses of these reports are
available on these organizations' websites.
More detailed information about this project and subsequent
listening sessions, the Hospital Quality Initiative, the NVHRI and
other related activities may be found at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/hospital
.
II. Meeting Format
The first listening session will consist of three parts. First, a
presentation on our current activities related to public reporting of
hospital quality measures, as well as a discussion of priority areas
and examples of measures as developed by such groups as the Institute
of Medicine and the National Quality Forum. The next portion of the
meeting will be reserved for a panel discussion and comments from key
stakeholders, both local and national. The last third of the meeting
will be reserved for comments, questions, and feedback from interested
parties in attendance.
Time for participants to ask questions or offer comments will be
limited according to the number of registered participants. Individuals
who wish to offer comments need not indicate their interest in advance,
but they should register for and attend the meeting.
We are interested in a national public dialogue on public reporting
of performance measures of hospital care beyond the ten measures
currently included in the NVHRI. We believe that an active discussion
will help us clearly identify the complementary and competing
priorities and concerns of the various stakeholders interested in
public reporting. Therefore, we are providing an opportunity for those
persons who are unable to attend one of the five listening sessions to
submit written comments to one of addresses listed in the ADDRESSES
section of this notice by July 30, 2004. However, we will not be able
to respond personally to the written comments received.
III. Registration Instructions
The New York State Quality Improvement Organization, IPRO, is
coordinating registration for this listening session. There is no
registration fee. You may register online by visiting the IPRO Web site
at http://www.ipro.org or you may call 1-800-852-3685, ext. 258. You
will receive a registration confirmation.
(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Program No. 93.773,
Medicare--Hospital Insurance; and Program No. 93.774, Medicare--
Supplementary Medical Insurance Program)
Dated: March 18, 2004.
Dennis G. Smith,
Acting Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
[FR Doc. 04-6669 Filed 3-25-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4120-01-P