Physician Quality Reporting Programs Strategic Vision

By Patrick Conway, MD, Principal Deputy Administrator and Chief Medical Officer

As CMS releases statistics on the 2015 PQRS payment adjustment for the first time to the public, we are also announcing the publication of the Physician Quality Reporting Programs Strategic Vision (or “Strategic Vision”). This Strategic Vision, (http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/QualityInitiativesGenInfo/index.html), describes a long-term vision for CMS quality measurement for physicians and professionals and public reporting programs, and how they can be optimized and aligned to support better decision-making from doctors, consumers, and every part of the health care system. The physician quality programs support our vision of a health system that achieves better care, smarter spending, and healthier people. These programs support incentives to providers, encourage improvements in care delivery, and deliver information to consumers.

There are five principles we believe will ensure that  quality measurement and public reporting play a critical role in improving the healthcare delivered to millions of Americans:

• Input from patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals will guide the programs.
• Feedback and data drives rapid cycle quality improvement.
• Public reporting provides meaningful, transparent, and actionable information.
• Quality reporting programs rely on an aligned measure portfolio.
• Quality reporting and value-based purchasing program policies are aligned.

CMS relies heavily on quality measurement and public reporting to facilitate the delivery of high quality care. This Strategic Vision articulates how we will build upon our successful physician quality reporting programs to reach a future-state where quality measurement and public reporting are optimized to help achieve the CMS Quality Strategy’s goals and objectives, and therefore contribute to improved healthcare quality across the nation, including better care, smarter spending, and healthier people.

The Strategic Vision evolved out of our desire to plan for the future in how we administerthe Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), Physician Feedback/Value-Based Payment Modifier Program, and other physician quality reporting programs. With passage of HR2, key components of these physician programs will serve as the foundation for the Merit-based Incentive Payment System. The Strategic Vision describes in concrete terms how we will advance the goals and objectives for quality improvement outlined in the CMS Quality Strategy through these quality measurement and reporting programs.

These quality measurements and public reporting goals and initiatives encourage stakeholder engagement; reduce participation burden for healthcare professionals; and support meaningful public reporting. Our long-term vision for physician quality reporting programs and the improvement of these programs challenges us to continue striving for excellence in healthcare quality over the next several years.

FDA and CMS Form Task Force on LDT Quality Requirements

By: Jeffrey Shuren, M.D., J.D. and Patrick H. Conway, MD, MSc

Health care providers and their patients expect that laboratory tests used in clinical management of patients should be consistent and of high quality.

Under FDA’s proposed framework for the oversight of laboratory developed tests (LDTs), outlined in draft guidance documents issued in October 2014, FDA would oversee the quality of these laboratory tests, along

—Jeff Shuren, M.D., J.D.side the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which regulate the laboratories themselves through the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA). We have heard stakeholder confusion about the roles of the two agencies in ensuring quality and concerns about potentially duplicative efforts. To coordinate efforts across the Department, FDA and CMS are establishing an interagency task force that will continue and expand on our collaboration related to the oversight of LDTs, which are tests intended for clinical use and designed, manufactured, and used within a single lab. The task force, comprised of leaders and subject matter experts from each agency, will work to address a range of issues, including those involving quality requirements for LDTs.

—Patrick H. Conway, MD, MScUnder the proposed LDT framework, FDA would phase in enforcement of premarket review requirements and the quality system regulation for some LDTs. FDA’s oversight of LDTs will assure that the tests are both analytically valid (able to accurately detect analytes) and clinically valid (able to measure or detect the clinical condition for which the test is intended). FDA is currently reviewing public comments on the draft guidances that it received through an open public docket and a two-day public meeting. In response to public comments, FDA may modify the proposed framework when we issue final guidance.

CMS, under CLIA, oversees the labs’ processes, rather than the tests they develop. CLIA and its implementing regulations include requirements for establishing and maintaining quality laboratory operations and ensuring the lab is staffed by qualified personnel. These laws do not require premarket review of tests or any evidence that a test is clinically valid.

When FDA’s proposed framework is implemented, both FDA and CMS will play a role in ensuring that LDTs are high quality—CMS through CLIA by continuing to focus on laboratory operations including the testing process and FDA by enforcing compliance with the agency’s quality systems regulation pertaining to the design and manufacture of the laboratory tests.

Although the roles of the agencies are different, FDA and CMS share an interest in ensuring effective and efficient oversight of LDTs so laboratories can offer tests to the American public with confidence that they are accurate and provide clinically meaningful information without unnecessary or duplicative agency oversight.

The goals of the FDA/CMS Task Force on LDT Quality Requirements include:

• identifying areas of similarity between the FDA quality system regulation and requirements under CLIA;
• working together to clarify responsibilities for laboratories that fall under the purview of both agencies; and
• leveraging joint resources to avoid duplication and maximize efficiency.

The task force is currently exploring areas where collaboration may realize greater oversight efficiency and produce the greatest benefit to patients, providers, and laboratories. The task force understands stakeholders’ concerns about differences in terminology used by FDA and CMS. We intend to clarify the terms used so that labs may better understand what is expected of them.

Our new task force is committed to its stakeholders and intends to provide education and outreach, including an upcoming webinar series, to address additional needs that are identified during this collaboration. We welcome any feedback and encourage you to contact us at LDTFramework@fda.hhs.gov.

Jeffrey Shuren, M.D., J.D., is Director of FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health

Patrick H. Conway, MD, MSc, is Acting Principal Deputy Administrator CMS Chief Medical Officer

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