Reporting Hospital Quality Data for Annual Payment Update (RHQDAPU)

April 1, 2005: New Data and Web Resources Provide Colorado Hospitals and Consumers with Hospital Quality Information.

The Colorado Foundation for Medical Care announced the release of inpatient hospital quality indicators that will provide Coloradoans with important quality information for three key common medical conditions – heart attack (AMI), heart failure (HF) and pneumonia (PN).

A new consumer website called Hospital Compare, www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov, was also unveiled April 1, 2005. This resource provides instant, objective, easy-to-use and free information about the quality of hospital care in Colorado and nationwide. The site was created by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Hospital Quality Alliance, a public-private collaboration.

Reporting Hospital Quality Data for Annual Payment Update (RHQDAPU) Initiative - CFMC is here to assist you.

Under a new federal law, hospitals must submit quality performance data for all payers, on all 10 required quality measures to receive the full annual payment update. Hospitals that do not participate in RHQDAPU will receive a reduction of 0.4% in the annual payment update.

To receive the full annual payment update, hospitals must:

complete and submit a RHQDAPU Notice of Participation, available on QualityNet, before August 1, 2004 to CFMC;
collect data on all 10 quality measures for all payers [the same measures as identified in the starter set for the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA)];
submit the data on all 10 quality measures for all payers to QualityNet with the knowledge that CMS intends to publicly report the data; and
achieve 80% or above on chart validation.

Visit QualityNet for additional RHQDAPU Information (link opens a new window)

Questions?

For information on RHQDAPU contact Michelle Mills at 303.695.3300 x3038, or mmills@coqio.sdps.org.

The Colorado Foundation for Medical Care (CFMC), the Medicare quality improvement organization for Colorado, prepared this material under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contents do not necessarily reflect CMS Policy.