title: Changes to the end-stage renal disease quality incentive program.
abstract: Monitoring the quality of dialysis care has long been a component of the Medicare ESRD program. As part of the 2008 Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA), Congress mandated the Quality Incentive Program (QIP), which linked measures of care quality to payments. The legislation embraced the idea that this linkage of federal money to performance would encourage the purchase of greater 'value.' The first 2 program years for the QIP use a simple scoring methodology and a limited scope of quality metrics. For payment year 2014 (performance period calendar year 2012), the program changes substantially, with an expanded number of quality measures and a more complex scoring methodology. In this article, we describe the program structure, quality measures, scoring system, and financial impact.
authors.affiliation: North Shore-LIJ Health System, Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, Great Neck, NY 11021, USA. sfishbane@gmail.com
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fishbane
authors.forename: Ilene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: Naveed N
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Masani
mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking / Q000191:economics; D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S. / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards; D005380:Financing, Government; D033161:Government Regulation; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006291:Health Policy / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000191:economics / Q000628:therapy*; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D016730:Program Development; D058996:Quality Improvement / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards; D012052:Reimbursement, Incentive / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000191:economics* / Q000592:standards; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014481:United States