[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 59 (Friday, March 26, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15884-15885]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-6669]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

[CMS-4071-N]


Medicare Program; Listening Session on Performance Measures for 
Public Reporting on the Quality of Hospital Care--April 27, 2004

AGENCY: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), HHS.

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

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SUMMARY: This notice announces the first in a series of listening 
sessions to discuss next steps in the development of an expanded set of 
performance measures for public reporting on the quality of hospital 
care. Health care consumers, payers, plans, providers, purchasers and 
other interested parties are invited to attend this session to present 
their individual views. The opinions and alternatives provided during 
this session (and subsequent listening sessions) will assist us in our 
collaboration with the National Voluntary Hospital Reporting Initiative 
(NVHRI), as well as in our other hospital quality reporting and 
improvement efforts. Attendance at the listening session is free and 
open to the public, but advance registration is strongly encouraged.

DATES: Meeting Date: The listening session announced in this notice 
will be held on Tuesday, April 27, 2004, from 9 a.m. until noon.
    Comment Deadline: Written comments must be received by July 30, 
2004.

ADDRESSES: The listening session will be held at the Hilton Logan 
Airport, 85 Terminal Road, Boston, MA 02128; (617) 568-6700.
    Written Statements or Comments: We will accept written comments, 
questions or other statements, not to exceed three single-spaced, typed 
pages that are received by July 30, 2004. Send written comments, 
questions, or other statements to via mail to Lisa Lang, Centers for 
Medicare & Medicaid Services, Quality Measurement and Health Assessment 
Group, Mailstop S3-24-14, 7500 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 
21244-1850; or via email to [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lisa Lang, (410) 786-1182. You may 
also send inquiries via email to [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background

    In December 2002, the American Hospital Association (AHA), 
Federation of American Hospitals (FAH), Association of American Medical 
Colleges (AAMC) joined the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of 
Hospital Organizations (JCAHO) and CMS in the development of the 
National Voluntary Hospital Reporting Initiative (NVHRI), a voluntary 
initiative to collect and report hospital quality performance 
information. This collaboration expanded to include the National 
Quality Forum (NQF), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), 
American Medical Association, Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project, 
American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) American Federation of 
Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), and other 
external stakeholders. The collaborators support this initiative as the 
beginning of an ongoing effort to make hospital performance information 
more accessible to the public, payers, and providers of care and to 
stimulate the adoption of quality improvement strategies. As part of 
the NVHRI, hospitals across the country are currently voluntarily 
reporting a ``starter set'' of 10 clinical performance measures for 
three clinical conditions (heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia) 
on the CMS Web site http://www.cms.hhs.gov.
    In furtherance of this effort, we intend to engage the broad 
stakeholder community to identify its wishes for what should be 
included in an expanded set of measures for hospital public reporting. 
With input from the public and private sectors and from consumers, we 
will identify a set of measures that are both robust and of high 
priority to these stakeholders. The collaborators will host five 
listening sessions for this purpose. Sessions will be conducted in 
Boston, Orlando, Dallas, San Francisco, and Chicago. More detailed 
information about the second and subsequent meetings will be presented 
in another Federal Register notice.
    The discussion at the Boston listening session will draw upon, but 
not be limited to, the priority areas for measurement of clinical 
quality performance identified by the National Quality Forum, the 
Institute of Medicine, and others would like to receive about hospital 
quality of care. We anticipate that these listening sessions will help 
identify priority areas for assessing clinical quality of care, some of 
which have performance measures that are ready for the immediate next 
phase of public reporting and others, where the measures will need 
refinement or final testing. We also expect that some areas of interest 
will require additional research and development. After reviewing the 
set of measures determined to be appropriate for public reporting, we 
will ask the National Quality Forum to formally consider any measures 
that it has not yet endorsed.
    The listening sessions are a key element of the CMS Hospital 
Quality Initiative. The Hospital Quality Initiative uses a variety of 
tools to stimulate and support a significant improvement in the quality 
of hospital care. The initiative aims to refine and standardize 
hospital data, data transmission, and performance measures to construct 
a single robust, prioritized, and standard quality measure set for 
hospitals. Our ultimate goal is that all private and public purchasers, 
oversight and accrediting entities, payers, and providers of hospital 
care would voluntarily use the same measures in their public reporting 
activities.
    Through the listening sessions, we expect to be able to identify a 
robust and comprehensive measure set for hospital public reporting, and 
thereby support the efforts of the NVHRI, as well as the CMS Quality 
Improvement Organization (QIO) program and other CMS hospital quality 
improvement and reporting efforts. The listening sessions will provide 
a unique opportunity to consult with a broad and diverse set of public 
and private stakeholders to assess the face validity and demand for 
measures to be proposed for the next and subsequent expansions of the 
current public reporting activity.
    In advance of the meeting, participants may wish to consult the CMS 
Hospital Quality Initiative Web site (http://www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/hospital/) to learn more about the NVHRI and other activities related 
to the CMS Hospital Quality Initiative. Participants may also wish to 
review

[[Page 15885]]

relevant reports of the National Quality Forum (such as ``National 
Voluntary Consensus Standards for Hospital Care: An Initial Performance 
Measure Set'' and ``Reaching the Tipping Point: Measuring and Reporting 
Quality Using the NQF-Endorsed Hospital Care Measures'') and the 
Institute of Medicine (such as ``Priority Areas for National Action: 
Transforming Health Care Quality''). Synopses of these reports are 
available on these organizations' websites.
    More detailed information about this project and subsequent 
listening sessions, the Hospital Quality Initiative, the NVHRI and 
other related activities may be found at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/hospital.

II. Meeting Format

    The first listening session will consist of three parts. First, a 
presentation on our current activities related to public reporting of 
hospital quality measures, as well as a discussion of priority areas 
and examples of measures as developed by such groups as the Institute 
of Medicine and the National Quality Forum. The next portion of the 
meeting will be reserved for a panel discussion and comments from key 
stakeholders, both local and national. The last third of the meeting 
will be reserved for comments, questions, and feedback from interested 
parties in attendance.
    Time for participants to ask questions or offer comments will be 
limited according to the number of registered participants. Individuals 
who wish to offer comments need not indicate their interest in advance, 
but they should register for and attend the meeting.
    We are interested in a national public dialogue on public reporting 
of performance measures of hospital care beyond the ten measures 
currently included in the NVHRI. We believe that an active discussion 
will help us clearly identify the complementary and competing 
priorities and concerns of the various stakeholders interested in 
public reporting. Therefore, we are providing an opportunity for those 
persons who are unable to attend one of the five listening sessions to 
submit written comments to one of addresses listed in the ADDRESSES 
section of this notice by July 30, 2004. However, we will not be able 
to respond personally to the written comments received.

III. Registration Instructions

    The New York State Quality Improvement Organization, IPRO, is 
coordinating registration for this listening session. There is no 
registration fee. You may register online by visiting the IPRO Web site 
at http://www.ipro.org or you may call 1-800-852-3685, ext. 258. You 
will receive a registration confirmation.

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Program No. 93.773, 
Medicare--Hospital Insurance; and Program No. 93.774, Medicare--
Supplementary Medical Insurance Program)

    Dated: March 18, 2004.
Dennis G. Smith,
Acting Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
[FR Doc. 04-6669 Filed 3-25-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4120-01-P