The Quality Rating System for Qualified Health Plans on health insurance exchanges should focus on the most important national quality improvement priorities, accurately reflect health plan performance, and provide patients with meaningful information, the American Hospital Association told the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in comments submitted on Jan. 21.
“The AHA supports several aspects of CMS’ proposed framework and measures list for the QRS,” wrote Linda Fishman, AHA senior vice president of public policy analysis and development. “However, we are concerned that the measures list seems more like a list of available and potentially implementable measures, rather than a list chosen to advance underlying strategic priorities.”
Among other changes, AHA recommended that CMS annually submit QRS measures under consideration to the Measure Applications Partnership; use only measures endorsed by the National Quality Forum; and consider including more meaningful measures of access and affordability, such as wait times for primary and specialist care and out-of-pocket costs for services. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires CMS to develop a system to rate the quality of health plans on the exchanges to assist consumers with comparing and selecting plans.
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