Trends in Publicly Reported Quality Measures of Hospital Imaging Efficiency, 2011-2018

OBJECTIVE. In 2011, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) initiated public reporting of outpatient imaging efficiency measures to reduce potentially inappropriate imaging and unnecessary exposure to ionizing radiation performed in hospital outpatient departments. Three CMS quality measures were designed to reduce duplicative CT in the Medicare population: OP-10, which CMS lists as "Abdomen Computed Tomography-Use of Contrast Material"; OP-11, which CMS lists as "Thorax CT-Use of Contrast Material"; and OP-14, which CMS lists as "Simultaneous Use of Brain CT and Sinus CT." We describe trends in hospital performance on these national hospital outpatient imaging efficiency measures since the inception of their public reporting. MATERIALS AND METHODS. This observational analysis used standard Medicare fee-for-service administrative claims to calculate hospital-specific scores for OP-10, OP-11, and OP-14. Consistent with CMS specifications, each measure was calculated as a percentage with appropriate exclusions and minimum case count requirements to ensure measure score validity and reliability. We report national performance as well as distributions of hospital performance scores for each annual public reporting period. Trend analyses were performed to examine changes in annual mean performance over time. Secondary analyses assessed trends and hospital performance by location (rural vs urban) and hospital characteristics. RESULTS. Between 2011 and 2018, the national mean rate of duplicate imaging declined for all three measures (OP-10, 18.9% vs 7.7%; OP-11, 5.6% vs 2.0%; OP-14, 2.5% vs 1.0%). For OP-10 and OP-11, most outlier hospitals were rural, small, and government-owned. For OP-10, rural facilities accounted for 32.2% of all facilities but 46.0% of outliers by the end of the study period. Similarly, for OP-11, rural facilities accounted for 30.1% of all facilities but 47.0% of outliers by the end of the study period. In general, the proportion of outliers located in rural areas decreased over time. CONCLUSION. National performance on CMS quality measures of duplicative CT has improved over time, with reduced variation observed between hospitals since the inception of public reporting. These successes support recent CMS policy initiatives to retire duplicative imaging measures from public reporting. Future work should seek to identify opportunities to use national public reporting initiatives to yield similar improvements across broader indications and settings.