The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) May 2 released the final Quality Measure Development Plan (MDP) to support the transition to the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Models (APMs), the new Medicare physician payment system beginning January 1, 2019 [see Washington Highlights, April 29].
The purpose of the MDP is to meet the requirements of the statute and serve as a strategic framework for the future of clinical quality measure development to support MIPS and advanced APMs. AAMC submitted comments to CMS in response to the proposed MDP.
The MDP identifies potential measurement and performance gaps and prioritizes approaches to close those gaps by developing, adopting, and refining quality measures. CMS will focus on developing and evaluating measures in the following quality domains: clinical care, safety, care coordination, patient and caregiver experience, population health and prevention, and affordable care.
As an effort to reduce clinical and administrative burden, CMS will also focus on promoting and improving alignment of measures across various stakeholders including national and private payers. Measures developed under this plan will hold individual clinicians and group practices accountable for care and promote shared accountability across multiple providers.
Updates to the MDP will be released annually or otherwise as appropriate.