Source: AAFP Washington, DC, Office
In a February 29 letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the American Academy of Family Physicians responded to the draft quality measure development plan titled, “Supporting the Transition to the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Models.”
In the response, the AAFP discussed how more than other specialties, family physicians are disproportionally affected by the burden of quality measurement. This burden is needlessly compounded by the lack of measure alignment across payers, the variety of specifications adopted by payers on similar clinical topics, and the lack of value provided to family physicians by existing measures.
The AAFP cited CMS’ recognition of these issues and called for the agency to promote measure alignment and harmonization through the Core Measures Collaborative whose work is mentioned throughout the draft plan. The AAFP said CMS should encourage the development of measures that demonstrate the value of primary care and that are particularly focused on comprehensiveness of care and continuity. Even though the draft plan is specifically written to address and define measurement for clinical performance improvement activities under MIPS, the AAFP urged CMS to develop a plan focused on measures of utilization and resource use for public consideration.