More Quality Measures Needed for Cancer, Other Chronic Diseases

Among the 20 chronic conditions with the highest impact on the Medicare population, some have no quality measure, which limits Medicare's ability to pay for value.

For many chronic conditions, including many cancer types, there are not effective quality measurements in place, which limits Medicare's ability to pay for value, according to a new assessment from Avalere. Diabetes and chronic renal disease have 21 measures each, but prostate cancer and lung cancer only have 3 measure each.

Both endometrial cancer and Alzheimer's disease, which are among the conditions with the highest impact, currently have no Medicare quality measures, Avalere reported. These high-impact conditions are prioritized based on the relative cost, prevalence, variability, improvability, disease burden, and disparities of each chronic condition to the Medicare popultion.

“As Medicare and other payers move towards value-based payments for services and pharmaceuticals, we need more meaningful quality measures in oncology and selected other areas of medicine to ensure alignment," said Dan Mendelson, Avalere CEO.

Read more at Avalere: http://bit.ly/1fxTaxO