The National Quality Forum’s (NQF) Measure Applications Partnership (MAP) has submitted recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for approximately 140 performance measures under consideration for use in 16 federal healthcare programs.

The forum calls the measures a critical building block for national pay-for-performance and public reporting programs, which affect 55 million Americans enrolled in Medicare and their healthcare providers.

“The role of MAP continues to grow and evolve in reflection of the changing nature of our nation’s healthcare system and the increasing focus on using measurement to assess value,” said Helen Burstin, MD, MPH, NQF chief scientific officer. “MAP is recognized for the diverse perspectives and expertise it brings to the table from both the public and private sectors to come to consensus on recommended Medicare performance measures.”  

MAP’s recommendations are the result of a two-month process in which experts review measures under HHS consideration for use in clinician, hospital and post-acute care/long-term care settings; assimilate public comments; and make recommendations about each measure. HHS then considers MAP recommendations in selecting measures for use in federal healthcare programs.

This year’s annual review of measures under consideration includes the following themes:

• Identifying measurement gaps, or areas where more research and data are needed, particularly in areas such as mental/behavioral health, perinatal care, and pediatric health, among others;
• Increasing alignment around key quality issues across federal programs to eliminate duplicative measurement;
• Sharing information about measure use to identify trends in performance and ensure measures are working as intended; and
• Continuously assessing areas in which care coordination among various providers can improve health and healthcare quality as well as the patient experience.

Approximately 60 of the measures are proposed for use in the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) program legislated by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA).

Additional MAP reports on the themes and measurement issues in the post-acute and long-term care settings and hospital settings will be published on February 12. MAP reports on themes for clinician settings and cross-cutting issues will be published March 15.

Read the final measure recommendation report.