The University of Michigan Kidney and Epidemiology Cost Center (UM-KECC), develops, maintains, and updates the End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Quality Measures for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), under the Quality Measure Development and Maintenance contract with CMS. These include the Dialysis Facility Compare (DFC) Measures and the development of new quality measures that will be implemented in the future. Several of CMS’s current and new Quality Measures will be used by CMS in the CMS ESRD Quality Incentive Program (QIP). In addition, UM-KECC works with CMS’s Measures Management System (MMS) in the development, evaluation, and reporting of the current ESRD Quality Measures.

Measure Development and Implementation Activities 

Public Comment on New Measures to be reported on Dialysis Facility Compare

In October 2017, CMS requested Public Comment on the inclusion of additional measures to Dialysis Facility Compare (DFC) measures in order to:

  • Increase transparency in the process and selection criteria
  • Allow for increased input from the community on candidate measures
  • Increase opportunity for the inclusion of externally developed measures on DFC

Individuals can submit comments from October 25, 2017 thru December 31, 2017 via email to dialysisdata@umich.edu. Note that these measures are only being considered for reporting on Dialysis Facility Compare (and not as additions to the Star Ratings) at this time.

Comments are requested on the following measures:

Past Summary Reports

Read the DFC and Star Rating Candidate Measures Public Comment Summary Report from the 2016 comment period

Read the Public Comment Summary from the 2015 comment period

 

Patient Reported Outcomes Report

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) tasked the University of Michigan Kidney Epidemiology and Cost Center (UM-KECC) with developing recommendations that investigate avenues for acquiring the evidence, data, and infrastructure necessary to implement patient-centered measures and patient reported outcomes.  Read the Patient Reported Outcomes Report.

 

Technical Expert Panel Summary Reports

Functional Status (May 2014)

DFC Star Ratings (April 2015)

Access to Kidney Transplantation (April 2015)

Vascular Access (April 2015)

Evaluation of Potential Prevalent Comorbidity Adjustments: Standardized Hospitalization Ratio and the Standardized Mortality Ratio (September 2015)

Emergency Department Visits (May 2016)

DFC Star Ratings (February 2017)

Patient-Reported Outcomes (May 2017)

 

2014 Dry run of the Standardized Readmission Ratio (SRR) for Dialysis Facilities

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), through a contract with the University of Michigan Kidney Epidemiology and Cost Center (UM-KECC), recently provided dialysis facilities with confidential reports of their results on the Standardized Readmission Ratio (SRR) for dialysis facilities through a national dry run held March 31 – May 2, 2014.  Download the report. 

 

Quality Measure Information

CMS and UM-KECC submitted 15 measures for NQF review in 2015, 11 of which received endorsement. The specifications for each measure are listed below. For information on how measures are implemented on DFC, please see the Guide to the Quarterly Dialysis Facility Compare Reports and the measure specifications on the Methodology page.

In addition, CMS and UM-KECC submitted 5 measures to NQF for review in 2016. Those measures are also included below, although final NQF endorsement decisions are pending.

Dialysis Adequacy

Vascular Access

Mineral and Bone Disorder

Mortality

Hospitalization/Readmission

Anemia Management

*Endorsed as part of the 2014 All-Cause Admissions and Readmissions Project