CMS is seeking input in its quality reporting strategy to better address health inequities in its 2022 payment system rule released July 19.
The proposals aim to make reporting of health disparities more comprehensive and actionable.
CMS seeks comment on these six factors:
1. Future additional stratification of quality measures by race, Medicare/Medicaid dual eligible status, disability status, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status.
2. Future application of an algorithm to estimate race and ethnicity in facility-level disparity reporting until more accurate forms of self-identified demographic information becomes available.
3. Possible collection of a minimum set of demographic data elements by facilities at the time of admission, and using electronic data definitions for interoperable information exchange.
4. Ways to address the unique challenges of measuring disparities in the ASC setting, such as small sample sizes, ASC specialization and the smaller proportion of patients with social risk factors.
5. Ways to address the utility of neighborhood-level socioeconomic factors toward measuring disparities in quality-of-care outcomes for ASCs.
6. Ways to address social risk factors influence the access to care, quality of care and outcomes for ASC patients.