Today, the Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) submitted formal comments to the Bipartisan Chronic Care Working Group of the Senate Finance Committee on their recently proposed policy options document.The four-person task force consists of Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), and Mark Warner (D-VA), and seeks to improve the treatment and management of chronic illness. PIPC's comments represent the viewpoints of a broad range of stakeholders dedicated to patient-centeredness and helps promote meaningful patient engagement in the design of future policy options.
Highlights of the comment letter include PIPC's suggestion that as part of either process for obtaining public input, CMMI should note where they have incorporated stakeholder feedback in the final framework of a demonstration program, and provide a rationale for instances in which stakeholder feedback has not been accepted. Furthermore,rulemaking and public comment should include information about how the model is incentivizing high-quality patient-centered care, including any measures that are being used to evaluate the model. This will help to give patients and other stakeholders an opportunity to shape CMMI’s work.
PIPC also believes that the creation of a Patient Advisory Panel within CMMI to help ensure new payment models are aligned with care that patients’ value. A Patient Advisory Panel could provide guidance to CMMI in identifying the key areas that would benefit from patient input, including APM development, model design features that will promote effective patient engagement, and metrics (e.g., patient-centered quality measures and other tools) on which to assess the success of these efforts. The Patient Advisory Panel could also assist CMMI and its contractors in the evaluation of APMs by identifying patient-centered quality measures and connect CMMI with the broader patient community to solicit input from patient organizations at all stages of CMMI’s model development, testing, and evaluation process.
Finally, PIPC supports requiring that CMS include in its quality measures plan the development of measures that focus on health outcomes that matter to patients with chronic disease. In particular, PIPC appreciates the document’s attention to the need for measures that address patient and family engagement, shared decision making, and care coordination. CMS should engage patients throughout the development and use of quality measures to ensure that quality measures reflect patient values and preferences and evolve with the standard of care.
The full comment letter is available below.
PIPC also believes that the creation of a Patient Advisory Panel within CMMI to help ensure new payment models are aligned with care that patients’ value. A Patient Advisory Panel could provide guidance to CMMI in identifying the key areas that would benefit from patient input, including APM development, model design features that will promote effective patient engagement, and metrics (e.g., patient-centered quality measures and other tools) on which to assess the success of these efforts. The Patient Advisory Panel could also assist CMMI and its contractors in the evaluation of APMs by identifying patient-centered quality measures and connect CMMI with the broader patient community to solicit input from patient organizations at all stages of CMMI’s model development, testing, and evaluation process.
Finally, PIPC supports requiring that CMS include in its quality measures plan the development of measures that focus on health outcomes that matter to patients with chronic disease. In particular, PIPC appreciates the document’s attention to the need for measures that address patient and family engagement, shared decision making, and care coordination. CMS should engage patients throughout the development and use of quality measures to ensure that quality measures reflect patient values and preferences and evolve with the standard of care.
The full comment letter is available below.
| pipc_chronic_care_comments.pdf |
