In This Week’s Issue:
1. PIPC Comments on Bipartisan Chronic Care Work Group Policy Options Document, click here to view the letter.
2. Video: PIPC and Avalere Hold Webinar on Alternative Payment Models (APMs), clickhere to view an archived webcast of the webinar.
3. GAO Invites MedPAC Nominations (Due: March 9), click here for additional information on how to apply.
4. PCORI Board Approves $70 Million for New Patient-Centered Research Studies, clickhere to view the press release.
5. Patient-Reported Outcomes: Engaging Patients As Partners For Better Pharmacovigilance Practices, click here to view the article.
6. Experts Share Concepts of Quality Measures and Pay-for-Performance With Hematologists, click here to view the article.
1. PIPC Comments on Bipartisan Chronic Care Work Group Policy Options Document, click here to view the letter.
2. Video: PIPC and Avalere Hold Webinar on Alternative Payment Models (APMs), clickhere to view an archived webcast of the webinar.
3. GAO Invites MedPAC Nominations (Due: March 9), click here for additional information on how to apply.
4. PCORI Board Approves $70 Million for New Patient-Centered Research Studies, clickhere to view the press release.
5. Patient-Reported Outcomes: Engaging Patients As Partners For Better Pharmacovigilance Practices, click here to view the article.
6. Experts Share Concepts of Quality Measures and Pay-for-Performance With Hematologists, click here to view the article.
1. PIPC Comments on Bipartisan Chronic Care Work Group Policy Options Document
Last week, 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.
Click here to view the letter.
2. Video: PIPC and Avalere Hold Webinar on Alternative Payment Models (APMs)
Last week, the Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) hosted a webinar featuring Avalere Health and PIPC to discuss the development, implementation and evaluation of alternative payment models (APMs). With increased authority to test new approaches to health care - and potentially expand successful models throughout federal health programs - patients must be aware and engaged to ensure that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) measures success of APMs based on value to the patient. The webinar offered an opportunity for patients and patient organizations to learn more about APMs and the implications a transition to APMs will have for patient-centered care.
Highlights of the discussion included:
Click here to view an archived webcast of the webinar.
3. GAO Invites MedPAC Nominations (Due: March 9)
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is requesting nominations for the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). Letters of nomination and resumes will be accepted through March 9, 2016 for appointments that will be effective May 1, 2016. More information on MedPAC is available here. Click here for additional information on how to apply.
4. PCORI Board Approves $70 Million for New Patient-Centered Research Studies
According to a press release last week, “The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Board of Governors [has] approved $70 million for nine new patient-centered research projects focused on conditions ranging from ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a very early stage, localized type of breast cancer to diabetes, chronic lung disease, and migraines... ‘We're strongly committed to supporting large-scale projects that will provide patients and those who care for them with the useful, authoritative evidence they need to make the better-informed health and health care decisions,’ said PCORI Executive Director Joe Selby, MD, MPH.” Click here to view the press release.
5. Patient-Reported Outcomes: Engaging Patients As Partners For Better Pharmacovigilance Practices
As Dr. Supriya Desai comments in Clinical Leader, “One way to improve the quantity and quality of safety information is to encourage patient-reported outcomes of adverse events (PRO-AEs), based on a more patient-centric approach, that incorporates less of formal data collection processes, reliant on HCP input. The Patient-Reported Outcomes Safety Event Reporting (PROSPER) Consortium was convened to improve safety reporting by better incorporating the perspective of the patient.” Click here to view the article.
6. Experts Share Concepts of Quality Measures and Pay-for-Performance With Hematologists
Dr. Surabhi Dangi-Garimella reported last week in The American Journal of Managed Care, “As we plan to move away from process-based– to outcomes-based measures, there's a need to think of modifying processes that can improve outcomes. A major move in the healthcare field, [Helen Burstin, MD, MPH, of the National Quality Forum] said, is the integration of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) with quality measures. ‘But these measures are riddled with challenges— they are not widely used in practice, more-so in clinical trials,’ and we don't have a method yet to aggregate PROs, she added.” Click here to view the article.
Last week, 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.
Click here to view the letter.
2. Video: PIPC and Avalere Hold Webinar on Alternative Payment Models (APMs)
Last week, the Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) hosted a webinar featuring Avalere Health and PIPC to discuss the development, implementation and evaluation of alternative payment models (APMs). With increased authority to test new approaches to health care - and potentially expand successful models throughout federal health programs - patients must be aware and engaged to ensure that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) measures success of APMs based on value to the patient. The webinar offered an opportunity for patients and patient organizations to learn more about APMs and the implications a transition to APMs will have for patient-centered care.
Highlights of the discussion included:
- Avalere Health’s Senior Vice President, Dr. Josh Seidman, outlined the impacts payment reform would likely have on patient engagement, including increasing provider transparency on physician services, expanding telehealth and patient self-reporting, and broadening access to Medicare data.
- PIPC Executive Director, Sara van Geertruyden, discussed the importance of ensuring that value to the patient is reflected in APMs and the outcome measures that are used in payment reform.
- Both panelists also discussed PIPC’s recommendations for the upcoming implementation of APMs. Namely, this includes creating a national advisory panel on patient-centeredness, applying patient-centeredness criteria in the approval and evaluation of APMs, and ensuring that patients and providers in the development of quality improvement and measurement.
Click here to view an archived webcast of the webinar.
3. GAO Invites MedPAC Nominations (Due: March 9)
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is requesting nominations for the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). Letters of nomination and resumes will be accepted through March 9, 2016 for appointments that will be effective May 1, 2016. More information on MedPAC is available here. Click here for additional information on how to apply.
4. PCORI Board Approves $70 Million for New Patient-Centered Research Studies
According to a press release last week, “The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Board of Governors [has] approved $70 million for nine new patient-centered research projects focused on conditions ranging from ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a very early stage, localized type of breast cancer to diabetes, chronic lung disease, and migraines... ‘We're strongly committed to supporting large-scale projects that will provide patients and those who care for them with the useful, authoritative evidence they need to make the better-informed health and health care decisions,’ said PCORI Executive Director Joe Selby, MD, MPH.” Click here to view the press release.
5. Patient-Reported Outcomes: Engaging Patients As Partners For Better Pharmacovigilance Practices
As Dr. Supriya Desai comments in Clinical Leader, “One way to improve the quantity and quality of safety information is to encourage patient-reported outcomes of adverse events (PRO-AEs), based on a more patient-centric approach, that incorporates less of formal data collection processes, reliant on HCP input. The Patient-Reported Outcomes Safety Event Reporting (PROSPER) Consortium was convened to improve safety reporting by better incorporating the perspective of the patient.” Click here to view the article.
6. Experts Share Concepts of Quality Measures and Pay-for-Performance With Hematologists
Dr. Surabhi Dangi-Garimella reported last week in The American Journal of Managed Care, “As we plan to move away from process-based– to outcomes-based measures, there's a need to think of modifying processes that can improve outcomes. A major move in the healthcare field, [Helen Burstin, MD, MPH, of the National Quality Forum] said, is the integration of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) with quality measures. ‘But these measures are riddled with challenges— they are not widely used in practice, more-so in clinical trials,’ and we don't have a method yet to aggregate PROs, she added.” Click here to view the article.
