Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

'Roadmap' features 5 improvement 'destinations' for providers.

Providers that wanted some extra motivation for going along with federal quality improvement initiatives just got a little, courtesy of the folks at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The agency has announced plans to work with providers to achieve "transformational" care quality improvements in the industry. CMS set out its goals to encourage quality-of-care improvements in its "Quality Improvement Roadmap," released on July 25. CMS Plans To Hit HIT Hard During Initiatives The agency outlined five major system strategies and 12 actions to improve health care quality.

What to expect: Working with federal and state agencies and nongovernmental partners, including health care professionals, will help CMS implement its quality improvement initiatives, the agency says.

CMS will publish quality measurements and information, revise its provider payment systems to promote higher quality of care and encourage greater use of health information technology to reduce costs. Feds Like Incentive-Payment Systems The roadmap also includes the following actions to improve health care quality:

 Expand CMS' promotion and public reporting of quality improvement measures.
 Create performance measurement systems that coincide with incentive-based payment systems.
 Make modifications to each major care setting's payment systems.
 Sevelop agency-wide strategies to promote providers' use of covered preventative services and effective HIT.
 
To read the Quality Improvement Roadmap, go to http://www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/quality%20roadmap.pdf.