Industry players agree on need for quality assurance but believe CMS’ QIP program for ESRD care delivery flawed -

The ESRD Quality Incentive Program (QIP) implemented by CMS provides a payment penalty of up to 2% for dialysis centers that fail to meet the agency’s clinical performance measures (CPM). However, a study by the University of Michigan found no relationship between the QIP and improved quality at outpatient dialysis centers. The lead author, Dr. Kyle Sheetz, says the issue doesn’t lie with financial incentives but how they’re implemented. Dr. Daniel Weiner at Tufts University School of Medicine believes the CMS uses too many CPMs to determine penalties and that some of the 14 metrics are “weakly correlated with health outcomes.” Weiner is involved in an initiative of Kidney Care Partners, an industry group, to develop new CPMs that could inform the QIP. That group, known as the Kidney Care Quality Alliance (KCQA), expects to release its first measure on improving access and retention in home dialysis by early next year.