CMS Aims for Expansion to Digital Quality Measures by 2025: Summary of CMS Quality Measurement Webinar

Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) hosted a Quality Measurement webinar. The panelists were Kim Rawlings (CMS), Joel Andress (CMS), Dr. Kyle Campbell (HSAG), Dr. Sophia Chan (CMS), Dr. Nicole Brennan (Battelle), and Breanna Rabel (Battelle). The presentation began with a discussion of the Measures Management System (MMS) that was created by CMS in 2017. The goal of MMS was to standardize quality measurement as well as support innovation. The blueprint of MMS is documentation for the criteria regarding development, implementation, and maintenance. Throughout the next decade, CMS hopes to expand to Meaningful Measures 2.0 and improve health outcomes and value through empowering individuals to make well-informed decisions regarding their care and reducing the burden on entities that are measured. The burdens clinicians and other entities encounter are costs regarding training, EHR modifications, and staff time, as well as the time it takes to enter data and visit patients. Meanwhile, patients also experience the burden of dealing with large amounts of paperwork, repetitive/formulaic provider questions, and disparate patient portals. These can be eliminated or reduced through lowering the number of measures, aligning measures, identifying which parts of healthcare are worth measuring, leveraging technology to support simplification, and encouraging patient engagement regarding which measures are important to them. Examples of major goals that CMS discussed pertain to streamlining quality measurements, leveraging measures to improve outcomes of healthcare, move towards advanced analytics and measures that are digital, increase patient-centeredness through the patient's ability to report quality, and promote health equity.

CMS would like to transition to Digital Quality Measures (dQMs) by 2025. This would allow providers to access information in a timely manner as well as support rapid feedback and transparency in reporting. Interoperable systems are beneficial to dQMs as they allow data to be exchanged in an efficient manner. The four key domains for the advancement of dQMs are evolution of technical components, leveraging policy, engaging stakeholders, and improving patient care. If you are interested in reading more about the presentation, click here.

Register for the next MMS Public Webinar in July: Driving Quality in the US: How CMS Evaluates its Measure Portfolio, on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, from 1:00 to 2:00 PM ET. Register here. It is also being held on Wednesday, July 14, 2021, from 3:00 to 4:00 PM ET. Register here.