Now that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has eliminated consideration of the advance care planning (ACP) quality measure for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), it is time to further investigate how such a measure would work for the post-acute care setting, according to an expert in the field.

Steven Littlehale, chief innovation officer, Zimmet Healthcare Services Group, said most healthcare sectors see the value of the ACP measure, even though the measure itself hasn’t been endorsed by the Consensus-Based Entity (CBE).

“Further investigation as to how this would be operationalized in the post-acute care space is required. Many nursing home operators comment that ACP is often not part of the patient’s acute care stay and/or shared during transition to the nursing home. Though again, most are leaning into this measure and see its value,” he said.

The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 requires the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) to contract with a CBE regarding performance measurement.

Battelle currently serves as the CMS CBE and uses its Partnership for Quality Measurement to incorporate feedback from interested parties to endorse measures fostering healthcare quality improvement. This information supplements the content found in the measure implementation and measure use, continuing evaluation, and maintenance sections of the CMS Measures Management System Hub.

CMS last month said it was considering the ACP measure for post-acute care. The agency said the measure would focus on gauging the percentage of adult patients with an ACP discussion and documentation in an electronic health record.

Sources said the measure could have swayed the quality performance record of the SNF in the CMS Value-Based Purchasing and Quality Reporting programs. Any chance for the ACP measure in the post-acute care setting to move forward during this measurement cycle ended when CMS removed it from consideration last week, the source said.

Debate among stakeholders centers on whether SNFs should be the entity for the ACP documentation, and how the measure would accurately reflect on the quality of care.

For more information on CMS measures, see https://tinyurl.com/2nm2jjnu.

Questions or comments? Contact Patrick Connole at pconnole@parkplacelive.com.