Claims Data

This measure is a re-specified version of the measure, “Hospital-level risk-standardized complication rate (RSCR) following elective primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) and/or total knee arthroplasty (TKA)” (NQF 1550), which was developed for patients 65 years and older using Medicare claims data.

The Routine Cataract Removal with Intraocular Lens (IOL) Implantation cost measure evaluates clinicians’ risk-adjusted cost to Medicare for beneficiaries who receive this procedure. The cost measure score is a clinician’s average risk-adjusted cost for the episode group averaged across all episodes attributed to the clinician. This procedural measure includes costs of services that are clinically related to the attributed clinician’s role in managing care during the 60 days prior to the clinical event that opens or ‘triggers’ the episode, through 90 days after the trigger.

The Screening/Surveillance Colonoscopy cost measure evaluates clinicians’ risk-adjusted cost to Medicare for beneficiaries who receive this procedure. The cost measure score is a clinician’s average risk-adjusted cost for the episode group averaged across all episodes attributed to the clinician. This procedural measure includes costs of services that are clinically related to the attributed clinician’s role in managing care from the day of the clinical event that opens or ‘triggers’ the episode, through 14 days after the trigger.

The percentage of adult patients, 21 years and older, with diagnosis of ischemic vascular disease (IVD) that are taking aspirin or an antiplatelet agent

Standardized average length of hospital stay (ALOS) for routine inpatient care (i.e., care provided outside of intensive care units).

The SNFRM estimates the risk-standardized rate of all-cause, unplanned hospital readmissions for Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries within 30 days of discharge from a prior proximal acute hospitalization. The prior proximal hospitalization is defined as an admission to an IPPS, CAH, psychiatric, or cancer hospital. The measure is risk-adjusted for patient demographics, principal diagnosis from the prior hospitalization, comorbidities, and other health status variables that affect the probability of a hospital readmission.

SNF HAI is a one-year outcome measure that estimates the risk-standardized rate of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) that are acquired during SNF care and result in hospitalization.

The Standardized Emergency Department Encounter Ratio is defined to be the ratio of the observed number of emergency department (ED) encounters that occur for adult Medicare ESRD dialysis patients treated at a particular facility to the number of encounters that would be expected given the characteristics of the dialysis facility’s patients and the national norm for dialysis facilities. Note that in this document an “emergency department encounter” always refers to an outpatient encounter that does not end in a hospital admission.

The standardized hospitalization ratio is defined to be the ratio of the number of hospital admissions that occur for Medicare ESRD dialysis patients treated at a particular facility to the number of hospitalizations that would be expected given the characteristics of the dialysis facility’s patients and the national norm for dialysis facilities. This measure is calculated as a ratio but can also be expressed as a rate.

Standardized mortality ratio is defined to be the ratio of the number of deaths that occur for Medicare ESRD dialysis patients treated at a particular facility to the number of deaths that would be expected given the characteristics of the dialysis facility’s patients and the national norm for dialysis facilities. This measure is calculated as a ratio but can also be expressed as a rate.