CMS Panel Recommends New Measures for Post-Acute and Hospice Providers

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Technical Expert Panel (TEP) report on the development of additional cross-setting measures for the post-acute care (PAC) (including home health and skilled nursing) and Hospice quality reporting programs (QRP), and filling measurement gaps with CMS' Universal Foundation measures on July 8. This report summarizes input provided by a TEP on December 15, 2023.

The December meeting focused on filling measurement gaps in the following domains: behavioral and mental health, patient experience of care, pain management, and immunization. The PAC and Hospice QRP Team also solicited feedback on the Universal Foundation measures applicable to the behavioral and mental health, patient experience of care, and immunization domains.

CMS will consider adapting some of the new measure concepts discussed to the PAC and hospice settings and conducting analyses to develop measure specifications and concepts for consideration at future TEP meetings. This cross-setting TEP is a standing TEP that will reconvene annually, or on an as-needed basis, to support the evaluation, development, and maintenance of the PAC and Hospice QRP measurement sets until 2028.