“I would love for the {Obama} administration to recognize that they need to stay ‘high-level,'” Dr. Gilfillan told a briefing on the future of Medicare sponsored by the Alliance for Health Reform.
“Thirty-two [quality] metrics for Accountable Care Organizations (ACO’s) to meet is too much — we should have five to seven patient-reported functional status outcomes,” MedPage Today reported he said.
“Hold us accountable, sure but don’t go describing 30 to 50 different ways that allow us to teach and perform to the test. Don’t go deep — let the marketplace be innovative in responding.”
When asked what examples of those five to seven measures would be, Gilfillan said, “I would think there’s a way for us to ask people, ‘How is your functional status? How are you doing now compared to when you went into the hospital?’ Or for all the hip [replacement] folks, ‘How are you doing at 30 days or 60 days?’ Look for those kinds of measures that are straightforward, that are based in the patient.”
Dr. Gilfillan also suggested that CMS give money to about 20 specialty societies for each to develop an outcomes registry to which providers would voluntarily contribute.
