For over 20 years, members of the Arbor Research Collaborative for Health team have been supporting CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) through analytical work and clinical input to help health professionals, patients, and stakeholders in our healthcare system close quality gaps by turning promising new ideas into action. An area of concern to CMS and the broader renal community is the large gaps between the CMS goals of high-quality care for every patient every time and what our healthcare system delivers.
Arbor Research evolved in response to the needs identified by CMS and the community for initiatives such as quality measures of performance and outcomes, and value-based purchasing. These initiatives fall under the Health Policy and Practice Projects (HP3), whose mission is to produce healthcare research that can inform policy and reduce gaps in quality care. Our current ESRD Measures contract with CMS, for which Arbor Research is the prime contractor, supports measure development and maintenance for the Clinical Performance Measures and supports production of the Dialysis Facility Reports. This project is described below.
Period of Performance: 2006-2009
Purpose:
The project provides technical support to CMS for the development and maintenance of the Phase II and Phase III Clinical Performance Measures (CPMs), and production of Annual Dialysis Facility Reports (DFRs) carried out under subcontract by the University of Michigan’s Kidney Epidemiology and Cost Center (UM-KECC).
Arbor Research’s Role:
Arbor Research provides regular technical assistance to CMS and stakeholders in the renal community, and responds to questions about the CPMs. Arbor Research is also the portal for online access for facilities, CMS, the ESRD Networks, and State Surveyors to obtain DFRs through the Arbor Research ESRD Measures Secure Website.
Arbor Research Investigators and Collaborators:
Arbor Research leads the project with assistance from UM-KECC. Dr. Robert Wolfe is the project director, along with Co-Investigators Dr. Bruce Robinson, and at UM-KECC, Dr. Jack Kalbfleisch.
History and Details:
Arbor Research has also been a preferred bidder for CMS through the Medicare Research and Demonstration (MRAD) since 2005. As an MRAD contractor, Arbor Research was awarded the ESRD Measures Support contract with CMS in 2006, in collaboration with UM-KECC and under the leadership of Dr. Wolfe. In the ESRD Measures Support project, Arbor Research and UM-KECC continue to provide support to CMS through systematic identification of appropriate quality measures for ESRD that are based on scientific knowledge, are precisely and publicly defined, are reviewed and updated regularly, and are clearly linked to improved clinical outcomes. The work involves disseminating timely, accurate, and complete reports of these quality measures to inform patients, providers, and policy makers. Researchers continue several tasks previously performed for CMS, and carry out several new ones examining dialysis practice across the country such as:
- Gathering and computing ESRD quality measures and disseminating them to the public.
- Maintaining a comprehensive database of patient- and provider-level ESRD data from virtually all of the relevant CMS data sources.
- Validating the reliability of the measures collected for the CPMs produced for the CPM Annual Report (Arbor Research produced the ESRD CPM 2006 Annual Report).
- Producing DFRs, which UM-KECC has produced annually for 13 years. Providers, the ESRD Networks, and State Surveyors rely on the reports to review many of the ESRD quality measures at the facility level.
- Recently launched a secure website for report distribution and comment entry. The secure website allows facilities to access their reports and enter comments for their facility in a secure domain.
- Computing the quality measures on CMS’s Dialysis Facility Compare website. Arbor Research and UM-KECC provide statistical and technical support for this website, which provides detailed information on dialysis and chronic kidney disease to patients and families.
- Reporting on selected measures to the CMS Dialysis Facility Compare website.
- Providing support for the systematic revision of existing measures and the development of new measures, through extensive literature review and technical expert panels (TEPs). See ESRD TEP Final Report for CMS.
- Presenting expert opinion to CMS and related stakeholders in the renal community, such as the Analysis on Mortality and Hemoglobin prepared and presented on September 11, 2007 to the Food and Drug Administration; and the Summary Evidence Regarding Hemoglobin Targets prepared for CMS.
- ESRD Quality Measures Specifications (Clinical Performance Measures, Dialysis Facility Compare)
For information about the ESRD Measures Support project, please contact:
Sabrina Gomes
Tel: +1 (734) 665-4108 x294
Fax: +1 (734) 665-2103
esrdmeasures@ArborResearch.org