Dialysis Facility Reports -- End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Quality Measures

Specifications for the Quality Measures and the Dialysis Facility Compare Measures
Arbor Research Collaborative for Health, in collaboration with the University of Michigan Kidney and Epidemiology Cost Center (UM-KECC), develop, maintain, and update the End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Quality Measures for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), under the Quality Measure Development and Maintenance contract with CMS. These include the Clinical Performance Measures (CPM), the Dialysis Facility Compare (DFC) Measures, and the development of new quality measures that will be implemented beginning in 2012. Several of CMS’s current and new Quality Measures will be used by CMS in the CMS ESRD Quality Incentive Program (QIP). In addition, Arbor Research and UM-KECC work with CMS’s Measures Management System (MMS) in the development, evaluation, and reporting of the current ESRD Quality Measures.

New measures, as well as those that are revised, go through the National Quality Forum (NQF) consensus endorsement process. Once measures are in use, CMS requires that they periodically be reevaluated. This is to determine, for example, whether revisions are necessary in response to new clinical evidence, or a change in clinical guidelines since the last cycle of review. The last cycle of measure development occurred in 2007. In the summer of 2008, the specifications for the ESRD Quality Measures were formally documented with the MMS through collaboration with another CMS contractor, the Health Services Advisory Group, Inc. (HSAG). Documentation forms with the detailed measure specifications were completed for each ESRD measure (listed below), and were prepared by Arbor Research and UM-KECC.

In September 2010, a new set of quality measures were submitted to CMS. The final NQF endorsed measures will be implemented by CMS at a later date after the conclusion of the NQF endorsement process.

2013 Measure Specifications for the ESRD Quality Incentive Program (QIP) Final Rule
This final rule containing measures for payment year 2013 was published by CMS on November 1, 2011.

2014 Measure Specifications for the ESRD Quality Incentive Program (QIP) Final Rule
This final rule containing measures for payment year 2014 was published by CMS on November 1, 2011.

2014 Measure Specifications for the ESRD Quality Incentive Program (QIP) Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM)
This final rule containing measures for payment year 2014 was published by CMS on July 1, 2011.

2014 ESRD Quality Incentive Program (QIP) Performance Standards
Performance standards for payment year 2014 are calculated using data collected over a full year (July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011) in accordance with the Final Rule published by CMS on November 1, 2011.