CMS contractors and other organizations involved in quality activities, including measure development, seek individuals to join their technical expert panels (TEPs) with expertise in relevant fields. These individuals can include clinicians, statisticians, quality improvement, methodologists, pertinent measure developers, and consumers. Person, family, and caregiver membership on TEPs is a very important part of the measure development, implementation, and maintenance processes, and can be very helpful in providing feedback on quality projects. Measure developers choose TEP members to provide input based on their personal experience and training. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a TEP?

A TEP is a group of people convened to share ideas, expertise, and opinions to help develop a quality measure or address another quality topic.

Why should I get involved in a TEP?

• TEPs work best with a diverse group of people, including individuals, family members, caregivers, health care professionals, patient advocates, statisticians, quality improvement experts, electronic health record vendors, and measure developers.
• Depending on your background, you can offer a unique perspective thanks to your experience with the health care system. You can help create relevant, useful, and easily understood measures to people experiencing care and services in the health care system. 
• As individuals, you can help CMS or another organization put the experiences of those using the health care system first and help our health care system reach key quality priorities.

What does a TEP do?

To help, TEP members use their knowledge and experience to

• Review new measure ideas and help decide which measures to develop further.
• Review results from the testing of measures currently in development.
• Advise the measure developer on which measures to recommend to CMS based on criteria, including if persons find the measure(s) meaningful and important.
• Provide feedback and recommendations on policies impacting national public reporting and value-based payment programs.
• Guide the development of key national documents guiding the future of quality measurement and quality activities across CMS or other organizations.
• Give feedback on other quality measurement and measure development topics. 

Who can be on a TEP?

TEPs work best when made up of diverse people, such as

• Individuals: persons/patients participating in their health and wellness. This might be someone who sees their primary care practitioner once a year, gets home health services, uses home and community-based services, or uses hospital services.
• Family members and caregivers: people supporting an individual receiving health care and need support making informed health care decisions. This can include informal or primary caregivers.
• Clinicians: health care professionals providing care for individuals, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other allied health professionals.
• Facility representatives: representatives from organizations providing services and support to individuals including hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, community-based providers, and outpatient centers.
• Measure developers: organizations responsible for the development, implementation, and maintenance of quality measures.
• Other interested parties: those influencing health care, such as health insurance providers, academic researchers, and local, state, and federal government agencies.

View current TEPs to see how you can get involved!