[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 79 (Friday, April 23, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22081-22083]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-8994]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

[CMS-4071-N2]


Medicare Program; Listening Sessions on Performance Measures for 
Public Reporting on the Quality of Hospital Care During April, May, and 
June 2004

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

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

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SUMMARY: This notice announces dates and locations for five listening 
sessions to be held in various sites throughout the country to focus 
discussion on the 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 these sessions to 
present their individual views. The opinions and alternatives provided 
during these sessions will assist us in our collaboration with the 
National Voluntary Hospital Reporting Initiative, 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: Session Dates: The dates, time, and location of the five 
listening sessions are as follows:
    Tuesday, April 27, 2004 Time: 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Location: Boston, 
MA. Site: Hilton Hotel-Logan Airport: 85 Terminal Road, Boston, MA 
02128. Phone: (617) 568-6700. The notice announcing the April 27, 2004 
Listening Session was previously published in the March 26, 2004 
Federal Register (69 FR 15884).
    Monday, May 17, 2004 Time: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Location: Orlando, FL. 
Site: Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites at Universal Orlando, 5905 Kirkman 
Road, Orlando, FL 32819. Phone: (407) 351-3333.
    Tuesday, June 8, 2004 Time: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Location: Dallas, TX. 
Site: Cooper Guest Lodge, 12230 Preston Road, Dallas, TX 75230. Phone: 
(972)-386-0306.
    Monday, June 14, 2004 Time: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Location: San 
Francisco, CA. Site: San Francisco Airport Marriott, 1800 Old Bayshore 
Highway, Burlingame, CA 94010. Phone: (650) 692-9100.
    Monday, June 28, 2004 Time: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Location: Chicago, IL. 
Site: Oak Brook Marriott, 1401 West 22nd

[[Page 22082]]

Street, Oak Brook, IL 60523. Phone: (630) 573-8555.
    Comment Deadline: We must receive written comments by July 30, 
2004.

ADDRESSES: We will accept written comments or other statements, not to 
exceed three single-spaced, typed pages received by July 30, 2004. Send 
written comments, or other statements 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), the 
Federation of American Hospitals (FAH), and the Association of American 
Medical Colleges (AAMC) joined the Joint Commission on Accreditation of 
Healthcare 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 (AMA), 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 website (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. We are working closely with our 
collaborators in the NVHRI on this effort, and we will be joined in 
hosting several of the sessions by various collaborators, as well as 
local providers, purchasers, and consumer organizations.
    The discussion at the listening sessions will draw upon, but not be 
limited to, priority areas for clinical quality performance measurement 
identified by the National Quality Forum, the Institute of Medicine, 
and others. 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 in which 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 significant improvement in hospital care 
quality. The initiative aims to refine and standardize hospital data, 
data transmission, and performance measures to construct a quality of 
care measurement set for hospitals that is robust, prioritized, and 
widely used. 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 Website (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 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''). These reports are available 
on those 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 on our website at (http://www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/hospital/).
    In the March 26, 2004 Federal Register (69 FR 15884), we published 
a notice announcing the April 27, 2004 listening session. In that 
notice, we stated that we would publish a subsequent notice announcing 
the dates and locations for the remaining listening sessions in the 
series.

II. Listening Session Format

    We anticipate that the format for each listening session will be 
similar. First, we will describe our current activities related to 
public reporting of hospital quality measures, including the NVHRI. The 
next portion of the meeting will be reserved for a panel discussion and 
comments from key local stakeholders concerning public reporting 
activities and quality performance priorities. The last portion of the 
meeting will be reserved for comments, questions, and feedback from 
interested parties in attendance. Sessions in Orlando, FL., Dallas, 
TX., San Francisco, CA., and Chicago, IL. may also afford opportunities 
for smaller, more focused discussions of particular topics. To obtain 
the agenda for a particular listening session, please consult (http://www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/hospital).
    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 hospital care performance 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

[[Page 22083]]

an opportunity for those who are unable to attend the listening 
sessions in person to submit written comments to one of the addresses 
listed in the ADDRESSES section of this notice by July 30, 2004. We 
will not be able to respond personally to the written comments 
received. However, summaries of each listening session and written 
comments received will be posted on the CMS website at (http://www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/hospital).

III. Registration Instructions

    The New York State Quality Improvement Organization, IPRO, is 
coordinating registration for all listening sessions. There is no 
registration fee to attend any of the sessions. You may register online 
by visiting the IPRO website 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: April 15, 2004.
Mark B. McClellan,
Administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
[FR Doc. 04-8994 Filed 4-22-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4120-01-P