Project Title: Development, Evaluation, and Maintenance of Post-Acute Care (PAC) and Hospice Quality Reporting Program (QRP) Measurement Sets

Dates:

The Technical Expert Panel (TEP) nomination period opens on September 13, 2023 and closes on October 11, 2023. Submit all nomination materials by the closing date.

Project Overview:

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has contracted with Acumen, LLC and Abt Associates Inc. (hereafter referred to as Acumen and Abt) to support the development, evaluation, and maintenance of quality and cost measures for use in the Post-Acute Care (PAC) Quality Reporting Programs (QRPs) as mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010 and the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation (IMPACT) Act of 2014. Acumen’s contract name is “Quality Measure & Assessment Instrument Development & Maintenance & QRP Support for the Long Term Care Hospital, Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility, Skilled Nursing Facility, Quality Reporting Programs, & Nursing Home Compare.” The contract number is 75FCMC18D0015, Task Order 75FCMC19F0003. Abt’s contract name is “Home Health and Hospice Quality Reporting Program Quality Measures and Assessment Instruments Development, Modification and Maintenance, & Quality Reporting Program Oversight Support.” The contract number is 75FCMC18D0014, Task Order 75FCMC19F0001. 

As part of its measure development process, Acumen and Abt convene groups of stakeholders and experts who contribute direction and input during measure development and maintenance. This TEP’s purpose is to provide input to Acumen and Abt on the maintenance and evaluation of the PAC QRP and Hospice measurement sets and inform new measure development and maintenance of quality measures, specifically, for the Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF), Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH), Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF), Home Health (HH) and Hospice settings. Holding a TEP allows Acumen and Abt to leverage the members’ experience, which increases the clinical and face validity of the measures and helps to maximize the number of critical dimensions of care being addressed. This input will be used to inform new measure development and maintenance of PAC and Hospice quality measures.  

Acumen and Abt are convening this TEP with a broad range of expertise to evaluate the measurement sets across the IRF, LTCH, SNF, HH, and Hospice setting, with a focus on identifying measurement gaps and ensuring measures align with CMS program requirements and goals.

Seeking the Following Perspectives/Expertise:

A TEP of approximately 12-15 individuals will provide guidance on concepts related to the evaluation of the PAC and Hospice measurement sets, new measure development, and maintenance of PAC and Hospice quality measures. The TEP must collectively represent expertise in all settings. We are seeking individuals with differing perspectives and areas of expertise, including but not limited to:

• Clinical experts with knowledge or experience working in the IRF, LTCH, SNF/NH, HH and Hospice settings;
• Other subject matter experts or independent researchers with expertise or working knowledge of IRF, LTCH, SNF/NH, HH and Hospice settings;
• Clinical experts or independent researchers with expertise in healthcare disparities;
• Independent researchers or representatives from consumer stakeholder organizations;
• Measure development experts;
• Quality improvement specialists;
• Patient/Family (Caregivers) who received care in a PAC and/or Hospice setting; and
• Clinical experts or independent researchers with expertise using the assessment tools or Medicare claims data.

TEP Expected Time Commitment: 

Selected nominees will serve in a standing committee to support the evaluation and maintenance of PAC QRP measurement sets for the Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF), Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH), Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF), Home Health (HH) and Hospice settings. Selected nominees can expect to be contacted on an annual, or as needed, basis for up to five years. 

Selected nominees will be expected to attend the first TEP meeting in November 2023 (specific dates to be determined) and a pre-TEP webinar approximately 1-2 week(s) prior to meeting date. All meetings will be held virtually.

Next Steps:

Please read the TEP Charter and complete the TEP Nomination Form. You may access these documents by clicking the title of each document:

• PAC QRP TEP Charter 
• PAC QRP TEP Nomination Form

Project Title: Expanded Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) Model Implementation & Monitoring

Dates:

The Technical Expert Panel (TEP) nomination period opens on Wednesday, August 30, 2023 and closes on Wednesday, September 27, 2023. Submit all nomination materials by the closing date.

Project Overview:

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) contracted with Abt Associates, Inc. to support the implementation of the HHVBP Model, including the development of refinements to the measures and scoring methodology, first for the original Model and now for the expanded HHVBP Model. The contract name is Research, Measurement, Assessment, Design and Analysis: Home Health Value-Based Purchasing – Implementation/Monitoring. The contract number is HHSM-500-2014-00026I, Task Order number HHSM-500-T0002. During the original Model, as part of its process for refining measures and the scoring methodology, Abt convened a Technical Expert Panel who provided thoughtful input. Abt will convene a Technical Expert Panel to gain feedback during development and maintenance of the expanded HHVBP Model. 

Seeking the Following Perspectives/Expertise:

We are seeking individuals with differing perspectives and areas of expertise, such as home health, health equity, measure development, performance measurement, quality of care, and/or value-based purchasing. We are interested in representatives from patient advocacy groups, clinical and administrative staff from home health providers, and methodologists and researchers. 

TEP Expected Time Commitment: 

The TEP is expected to begin in October 2023 and continue meeting for several years. We expect to convene one in-person meeting and up to three teleconferences each year. We anticipate the first meetings to be scheduled around the following times: 

• Introductory teleconference, late October 2023
• In-person 1-Day Meeting, mid-November 2023

Additional TEP time commitments will include:

• Reviewing materials in preparation for the TEP 1-Day Meeting, which will be sent to members one week prior to the meeting.

Next Steps:

Please read the TEP Charter and complete the TEP Nomination Form. The TEP Nomination Form contains instructions for submission. You may access these documents by clicking the title of each document:

• HHVBP TEP Charter
• HHVBP TEP Nomination Form