CMS Report Shows that Quality Measures Matter
July 2021
CMS recently published their 2021 National Impact Assessment Report of Quality Measures. The triennial report, which scans the 26 different CMS programs, found progress in key priority areas. 91% of CMS’s analyzed measures demonstrated stable or increased performance, which shows that measuring quality improvement matters.
For example, the “Patients over Paperwork” and “Meaningful Measures” efforts were initiated to reduce the number of measures and streamline how measure reporting happens. The findings of this report demonstrate a 24% reduction in the total number of measures and nearly 80% of the measures submitted in 2020 were digital.
Another area of focus for CMS has been increasing the number of outcome-based measures. This report found that 46% of total measures in 2020 addressed outcomes or cost, up from 39% in 2015. This is a critical step in shifting payment systems to be more value-based and move away from processes that simply reward volume.