CMS Continues Emphasis on Quality, Value-based Purchasing

In the Inpatient Prospective Payment System proposed rule, CMS is asking for public input on how to ease the burdens on providers and how make the healthcare system less complex and bureaucratic. · The proposed rule also asks for input on additional measures that hospitals will have to report under the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program, including measures on safe use of opioids, malnutrition screening and treatment, and screening and interventions around alcohol and tobacco use. · CMS proposes that Medicare spending-per-beneficiary performance account for 50% of hospitals' Efficiency and Cost Reduction scores in the Value-Based Purchasing Program and that each of the four domains -- safety, clinical care, efficiency and cost reduction, and person and community engagement -- comprise 25% of a hospital's overall score. · As directed by the 21st Century Cures Act, CMS proposed to calculate penalties under the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program by comparing hospitals' performance with other hospitals that have a similar population of patients who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid.