Hospital Quality Reporting
WVMI's staff is prepared to assist hospitals with the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA) and Reporting Hospital Quality Data for Annual Payment Update (RHQDAPU), the current public reporting initiatives.
The Hospital Quality Alliance is a private/public venture involving the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the American Hospital Association, the Federation of American Hospitals, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the Association of American Medical Colleges, as well as other stakeholders. Results from hospitals participating in this initiative are updated quarterly on Hospital Compare.
The Reporting Hospital Quality Data for Annual Payment Update (RHQDAPU) initiative was initially developed as a result of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003. Section 5001(a) of Pub. 109-171 of the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005 set out new requirements for the RQHDAPU program, which build on the ongoing voluntary Hospital Quality Initiative.
That initiative is intended to equip consumers with quality of care information to make more informed decisions about their health care, while encouraging hospitals and clinicians to improve the quality of inpatient care provided to all patients. The hospital quality of care information gathered through the initiative is available to consumers on the Hospital Compare Web site.
The RHQDAPU initiative requires hospitals to submit data for specific quality measures for health conditions common among people with Medicare, and which typically result in hospitalization. For fiscal year 2009, CMS requires that hospitals submit data regarding AMI, HF, PN and SCIP clinical quality measures to the QIO Clinical Warehouse beginning with first quarter 2008 discharges. Additionally, hospitals are required to meet 80% reliability on validation.
Beginning with the first quarter 2008, hospitals must submit aggregate population and sample size countsfor Medicare and non-Medicare discharges for AMI, HF, PN and SCIP to CMS via QualityNet.
Hospitals must continuously collect HCAHPS data (monthly or quarterly) beginning with July 2007 discharges. Beginning Q08, submit zero cases in the warehouse.
For the AMI 30 day, HF 30 day and PN 30 day mortality measures, CMS uses enrollment data as well as Part A and Part B claims for Medicare fee-for-service patients to calculate the mortality measures.
Hospitals that do not participate in the RHQDAPU initiative will receive a reduction of 2.0 percent in their Medicare Annual Payment Update for fiscal year 2009. To avoid the reduction in their Annual Payment Update, hospitals must meet specific requirements outlined in the RHQDAPU Participation Steps (Reference Checklist) for FY 2009, available on QualityNet.
Please reference the QualityNet submission deadlines.
Benefits of Participating
Hospitals benefit from publicly reporting quality of care information in several ways. Participation helps hospitals highlight their successes and identify and focus on areas for improvement in quality of care. Also, using national and local benchmarks helps hospitals assess performance. Hospitals have the opportunity to give consumers important information about quality of care to help them compare and make informed decisions. In addition to these benefits, Quality Insights offers technical assistance and educational training in submitting data and improving quality of care.