U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) Funding Opportunity: Measure Development for the Quality Payment Program

The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to enter into contracts or other arrangements with entities, including organizations with quality measure development expertise, to develop, improve, update, or expand quality measures for application under the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and/or Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APMs), which are collectively referred to as the Quality Payment Program, in accordance with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Quality Measure Development Plan.

The Measure Development for the Quality Payment Program funding opportunity provides funding to entities to develop, improve, update, or expand quality measures for use in the Quality Payment Program. Recognizing the benefits of measure development by external stakeholders with specific knowledge of clinician and patient perspectives and needs, the funding assistance of these cooperative agreements is specifically designated for entities external both to the CMS and to other federal agencies. These external entities provide the needed medical specialty and patient perspectives to lead or support the measure development priorities of the CMS Quality Measure Development Plan and, accordingly, to advance the Quality Payment Program measure portfolio. Specifically, collaboration with and support for these entities in measure development will assist CMS in addressing such essential topics as: clinician engagement, consumer-informed decisions, critical measure gaps, quality measure alignment, and efficient data collection that minimizes health care provider burden.

The specific purpose of the awarded cooperative agreements is for CMS to assist (financially and technically) each designated entity in developing, improving, updating, or expanding appropriate quality measure(s) for use in the Quality Payment Program.

Amount: A total of $30,000,000 is available to fund up to 20 cooperative agreements ranging up to $2,000,000 per year for up to three years.

Eligibility: Entities with quality measure development expertise. Such entities may include, but are not limited to, clinical specialty societies, clinical professional organizations, patient advocacy organizations, educational institutions, independent research organizations, health systems, and other entities engaged in quality measure development.

Note: The following entities are not eligible as a primary applicant: (i) entities with active grants, cooperative agreements, and/or contracts from CMS for quality measure development, implementation, maintenance, alignment, and/or public reporting activities where CMS is the measure steward; and (ii) entities that are involved in accreditation of health care providers. This does not include entities only receiving funding and/or support from CMS for their measures where CMS is not the measure steward. However, all of these entities may be subrecipients on one or more applications.

Link: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=301196

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