[Federal Register: April 23, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 79)]
[Notices]
[Page 22081-22083]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr23ap04-95]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
[CMS-4071-N2]
Medicare Program; Listening Sessions on Performance Measures for
Public Reporting on the Quality of Hospital Care During April, May, and
June 2004
AGENCY: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), HHS.
ACTION: Notice of meeting.
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SUMMARY: This notice announces dates and locations for five listening
sessions to be held in various sites throughout the country to focus
discussion on the 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 these sessions to
present their individual views. The opinions and alternatives provided
during these sessions will assist us in our collaboration with the
National Voluntary Hospital Reporting Initiative, 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: Session Dates: The dates, time, and location of the five
listening sessions are as follows:
Tuesday, April 27, 2004 Time: 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Location: Boston,
MA. Site: Hilton Hotel-Logan Airport: 85 Terminal Road, Boston, MA
02128. Phone: (617) 568-6700. The notice announcing the April 27, 2004
Listening Session was previously published in the March 26, 2004
Federal Register (69 FR 15884).
Monday, May 17, 2004 Time: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Location: Orlando, FL.
Site: Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites at Universal Orlando, 5905 Kirkman
Road, Orlando, FL 32819. Phone: (407) 351-3333.
Tuesday, June 8, 2004 Time: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Location: Dallas, TX.
Site: Cooper Guest Lodge, 12230 Preston Road, Dallas, TX 75230. Phone:
(972)-386-0306.
Monday, June 14, 2004 Time: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Location: San
Francisco, CA. Site: San Francisco Airport Marriott, 1800 Old Bayshore
Highway, Burlingame, CA 94010. Phone: (650) 692-9100.
Monday, June 28, 2004 Time: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Location: Chicago, IL.
Site: Oak Brook Marriott, 1401 West 22nd
[[Page 22082]]
Street, Oak Brook, IL 60523. Phone: (630) 573-8555.
Comment Deadline: We must receive written comments by July 30,
2004.
ADDRESSES: We will accept written comments or other statements, not to
exceed three single-spaced, typed pages received by July 30, 2004. Send
written comments, or other statements 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 llang@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), the
Federation of American Hospitals (FAH), and the Association of American
Medical Colleges (AAMC) joined the Joint Commission on Accreditation of
Healthcare 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 (AMA), 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 website (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. We are working closely with our
collaborators in the NVHRI on this effort, and we will be joined in
hosting several of the sessions by various collaborators, as well as
local providers, purchasers, and consumer organizations.
The discussion at the listening sessions will draw upon, but not be
limited to, priority areas for clinical quality performance measurement
identified by the National Quality Forum, the Institute of Medicine,
and others. 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 in which 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 significant improvement in hospital care
quality. The initiative aims to refine and standardize hospital data,
data transmission, and performance measures to construct a quality of
care measurement set for hospitals that is robust, prioritized, and
widely used. 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 Website (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 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''). These reports are available
on those 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 on our website at (http://www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/hospital/
).
In the March 26, 2004 Federal Register (69 FR 15884), we published
a notice announcing the April 27, 2004 listening session. In that
notice, we stated that we would publish a subsequent notice announcing
the dates and locations for the remaining listening sessions in the
series.
II. Listening Session Format
We anticipate that the format for each listening session will be
similar. First, we will describe our current activities related to
public reporting of hospital quality measures, including the NVHRI. The
next portion of the meeting will be reserved for a panel discussion and
comments from key local stakeholders concerning public reporting
activities and quality performance priorities. The last portion of the
meeting will be reserved for comments, questions, and feedback from
interested parties in attendance. Sessions in Orlando, FL., Dallas,
TX., San Francisco, CA., and Chicago, IL. may also afford opportunities
for smaller, more focused discussions of particular topics. To obtain
the agenda for a particular listening session, please consult (http://www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/hospital
).
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 hospital care performance 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
[[Page 22083]]
an opportunity for those who are unable to attend the listening
sessions in person to submit written comments to one of the addresses
listed in the ADDRESSES section of this notice by July 30, 2004. We
will not be able to respond personally to the written comments
received. However, summaries of each listening session and written
comments received will be posted on the CMS website at (http://www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/hospital
).
III. Registration Instructions
The New York State Quality Improvement Organization, IPRO, is
coordinating registration for all listening sessions. There is no
registration fee to attend any of the sessions. You may register online
by visiting the IPRO website 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: April 15, 2004.
Mark B. McClellan,
Administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
[FR Doc. 04-8994 Filed 4-22-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4120-01-P