CMS plans revamp of dialysis incentive program

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a proposed rule late Friday that would change the way dialysis centers' performance is measured under the quality incentive program that links payments to performance. For 2013, CMS plans to only use two of the program's three current metrics. Then, in 2014, it plans to eliminate an additional metric and adopt seven new ones (see BioCentury, Dec. 29, 2010).

For 2013, CMS plans to no longer measure the percentage of patients whose hemoglobin levels were less than 10 g/dL. Instead, the agency proposes to use the percentage of patients achieving urea reduction ratio of 65% or more and the percentage of patients whose hemoglobin levels were greater than 12 g/dL. CMS said the elimination of the lower hemoglobin metric is in line with FDA's new label for erythropoietin stimulating agents (ESAs) announced last month (see BioCentury, June 24). ...