What’s happening: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has posted its annual list of measures under consideration (MUC) for use in quality reporting and payment programs. The list includes boarding measures on patient safety and emergency departments for hospitals.
What else to know: As required by law, the MUC list will be reviewed by the Partnership for Quality Measurement’s (PQM) Pre-Rulemaking Measure Review (PRMR) committees, who will provide CMS with recommendations on the measures’ appropriateness for federal quality programs by Feb. 1, 2025. Written public comments can be provided to the PRMR by Dec. 30, and the public can register for listening sessions and committee meetings on the PQM website.
Overall, CMS lists 16 MUC for use in hospital programs, including the hospital inpatient quality reporting program (QRP), the hospital outpatient QRP, the hospital readmissions reduction program, the hospital value-based purchasing program, and the hospital acquired conditions reduction program.
Eight of the MUC are existing measures undergoing revisions, including expanding measure cohorts to include Medicare Advantage patients.
Notable new measures under consideration include a measure that would assess whether patients receive follow-up addressing social needs, a measure that assesses boarding in the emergency department, and a new hospital harm electronic clinical quality measure on major bleeding events.
