Publications

This week the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule to make major changes to improve the care and safety of the nearly 1.5 million residents in the more than 15,000 long-term care facilities that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The policies in this final rule are targeted at reducing unnecessary hospital readmissions and infections, improving the quality of care, and strengthening safety measures for residents in long-term care facilities. These revisions mark first major rewrite of the conditions of participation for long-term care...

2015 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) Feedback Reports and 2015 Annual Quality and Resource Use Reports (QRURs) are available.

• The PQRS Feedback Reports show your program year 2015 PQRS reporting results, including payment adjustment assessment for calendar year 2017
• The 2015 Annual QRURs show how physician groups and physician solo practitioners performed in 2015 on the quality and cost measures used to calculate the 2017 Value Modifier, as well as their 2017 Value Modifier payment adjustment

How to Access the Reports: 

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The second Annual Report recently released, provides a summative and formative evaluation of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) initiative Models 2-4 and is based on the multiple evaluation and monitoring activities completed during the second year of the evaluation. The report reflects quantitative analyses of Phase 2 participants that joined the initiative during the first year (Q4 2013 – Q3 2014) and qualitative analyses of participants that joined during the first seven quarters (Q4 2013 – Q2 2015). Most results are based...

This week a number of post-acute care provider groups sent a letter to Ways and Means Committee leaders advocating for major changes to the Medicare Post-Acute Care Value-Based Purchasing Act (H. R. 3298). This bipartisan bill would establish a value-based purchasing program across home health agencies, nursing homes, inpatient rehabilitation facilities and long-term care hospitals. Under the PAC VBP Program, reimbursement is withheld, then redistributed through value-based incentive payments, based on a provider’s performance on measures specified by the IMPACT Act. The PAC VPB would...