Summary1 of Performance Measurement Workgroup
Conference Call on
Wednesday, December 21, 2005, 1:00 pm-2:00 pm EST
Participants
Kevin Weiss, ACP (chair)
Mark Antman, AMA
Bruce Bagley, AAFP
Robert Blaser, RPA
Carmella Bocchino/ Rebecca Hayes/ Christina Dabkowski, AHIP
John Bott, Employer Healthcare Alliance
Chris Colombo, Independence Blue Cross
Trudie Cushing, ACR
Jill Epstein, AGS
Andrea Gelzer, Cigna
Anders Gilberg, AMA
Thomas Granatir, Humana
Peter Hollmann, AGS
David Hopkins, PBGH
Sheldon Horowitz, ABMS
George Isham, Health Partners
Christine Izui, Blue Cross Blue Shield
Scott Jones, ACS
Sandra Lewis, ACCP
Dan McDonald, BC BS Association
Sharon McGill, AOA
Jim Moser, ACR
Crystal Mottur Pilson, ACP
Michael Mustille, Kaiser Permanente
Ryan Mutter, AHRQ
Erin O’ Brien, AMA
Rob Plotnick, APA
Ginny Proestakes, GE
Mark Rattray, UnitedHealth Care
Debbie Robin, AGA
Peter Sawires, PRCH
Katie Starkey, ABIM
Donald Storey, Aetna
Donna Sweet, KU School of Medicine
Howard Underwood, Aetna
Tom Valuck, CMS
Nancy Wilson, AHRQ
Yao Zhang, WellPoint
1
Please note that to better organize this summary; some of the comments have been taken out of
chronological order.
Introduction
Kevin Weiss welcomed participants to the call and explained the call’s objectives – to
review the efficiency principles document, discuss the development of sub-specialty
measures, and discuss the use of registry data to measure performance.
Discussion of the “Principles of Efficiency Measures” Document
The following revisions were made to the document:



In the second paragraph, “informing” was changed to “assessing.”
In definition “a,” the word “single” was deleted. Parenthetical “s” was added to “unit”
in two places.
Series commas were added for continuity.
The workgroup gave a consensus vote in support of forwarding the document to the AQA
meeting for endorsement.
Update on the Development of Sub-specialty measures
Mark Antman, AMA, gave an overview of a project that the AMA Physician Consortium
for Performance Improvement (PCPI) and NCQA are working to develop measures for
sub-specialties, specifically in areas where there are noted “gaps in measurement.” The
project is funded by CMS and on conjunction with the Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.





A technical expert panel will be meeting February 10, 2006 in Washington, D.C.
This panel will be making recommendations on which specific specialty topics and
measures will be pursued by the project.
CMS will make the final decision based on the panel’s recommendations.
The criteria for choosing topic areas will be based on identified national priorities,
available guidelines developed in the U.S. and Canada, high predominance of cost
and/or frequency, and strength of evidence.
The panel is currently only reviewing Medicare data and is looking for partners in the
private sector to assess additional data.
This project will run for one year.
In addition to this project, the PCPI is continuing to work with specialty societies to
develop specialty care measures. They are currently pursuing the following topic areas:
 End-stage renal disease and chronic kidney disease (working with renal physicians).
 Osteoporosis.
 Otitis externa (ear, nose and throat physicians).
 Glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration (ophthalmologists).
 Acute gastroenteritis in pediatrics (AAP and AAFP).
Question and answer discussion
 The technical expert panel is made up of a diverse group of stakeholders including
consumers, purchaser, providers, and health plans. Once topics are selected, topic
panels will be formed with the same diversity of stakeholders.
 For the CMS project, they hope to have 5-6 topics developed and in preliminary
testing phases by November.
 The PCPI has committed to developing measures in 7-8 topics in 2006 separate from
the CMS initiative.
 The PCPI will also be looking at broader, cross-cutting measures, including
medication management and patient safety.
Opportunities for AQA involvement
Kevin Weiss discussed opportunities for AQA involvement, such as reviewing the
measures prior to final approval by NQF or commenting on measures before finalized by
the PCPI. The workgroup agreed that Kevin would discuss opportunities for AQA to
work within the PCP process with Greg Pawlson, NCQA, and Karen Kmetik, PCPI, in
further detail and report back to the workgroup.
Comments on Patient Experience of Care Survey
Members of the workgroup can forward specific questions and comments to Carmella
Bocchino prior to January 2, 2006. Members should be prepared to discuss the survey on
the next Performance Measurement workgroup call on January 6, 2006.
The Use Registry Data for Quality Measurement
It was agreed by the workgroup that further discussion will take place on the use of
registry data for measuring performance. A Strawman document will be developed that
will outline the principles of registry data for quality measurement. Materials that were
disseminated at the CMS/ AQA registry meeting on December 8, 2005 will be distributed
to the Performance Measurement workgroup.
Next Steps
The next call of the workgroup will be held January 6, 2006.