CMS is offering up to $30 million in funding and technical assistance to clinicians, patients, and others involved in developing and improving quality measures for the Quality Payment Program (QPP).
The funds can be used for work on quality issues including critical measure gaps, clinician engagement, efficient data collection to reduce clinician burden, consumer-informed decisions, and quality measure alignment.
CMS will work directly with healthcare providers through cooperative agreements, providing resources to help guide their measure-development efforts, saying the agreements can “leverage the unique perspectives and expertise of these external entities, such as clinician and patient perspectives, to advance the Quality Payment Program measure portfolio.”
The offer comes as CMS implements the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) and healthcare providers try to find their footing with the QPP and the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).
To maximize CMS reimbursement, clinicians must select and report on six metrics from quality, advancing care information and improvement activities.
There are more than 300 options, and CMS says the funding offer is intended in part to help healthcare providers choose wisely while reducing the administrative burden.
Financial Disclosure: Author Greg Freeman, Editor Jesse Saffron, Editor Jill Drachenberg, Nurse Planner Jill Winkler, Editorial Group Manager Terrey L. Hatcher, and Consulting Editor Patrice Spath report no consultant, stockholder, speaker’s bureau, research, or other financial relationships with companies having ties to this field of study.
