Feasibility of Distinguishing Performance Among Provider Groups Using Patient-reported Outcome Measures in Older Adults With Multiple Chronic Conditions.

Objective: To examine minimum sample sizes and follow-up times required for patient-reported outcome-based performance measures (PMs) to achieve acceptable reliability as PMs.

Participants: We used 2 groups of patients age 65+ with at least 2 of 13 chronic conditions. The first was a sample of Medicare Advantage beneficiaries, who reported health-related quality of life (HRQoL) at baseline and 2 years.

Patient-Reported Outcome-Based Performance Measures for Older Adults with Multiple Chronic Conditions.

As measures of health care quality have become more sophisticated, the goals of patient care have expanded into helping patients optimize their functional status and well-being. Patient-reported outcome (PRO) based performance measures (PMs) can measure how well these aspects of care are being delivered and compare the performance of health care systems and different provider groups. Most PMs focus on technical quality of care or such outcomes as survival.

Adapting summary scores for the PROMIS-29 v2.0 for use among older adults with multiple chronic conditions.

Purpose: The patient-reported outcomes measurement information system 29-item profile (PROMIS-29 v2.0) is a widely used health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measure. Summary scores for physical and mental HRQoL have recently been developed for the PROMIS-29 using a general population.

Evaluating the PROMIS-29 v2.0 for use among older adults with multiple chronic conditions.

Purpose: The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System 29-item profile (PROMIS-29 v2.0), which measures health-related quality of life (HRQoL), has had limited evaluation among older adults (age 65+) with multiple chronic conditions. Our purpose was to establish convergent validity for PROMIS-29 in this population.

Supporting Veterans in Massachusetts: An Assessment of Needs, Well-Being, and Available Resources.

Massachusetts is home to approximately 380,000 of the nation's more than 21 million veterans, but there has been little research on the resources available to this population at the state level. There are numerous resources available to veterans and other military-affiliated groups in Massachusetts, but there are still pockets of unmet need in the areas of education, employment, health care, housing, financial, and legal services-particularly for newer veterans and current National Guard/reserve members. Although Massachusetts veterans fare better overall than their peers in other states, they lag behind other Massachusetts residents in terms of health and financial status.

Testing New Codes to Capture Post-Operative Care.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) uses the resource-based relative value system to determine payment for physicians and nonphysician practitioners for their professional services. For many surgeries and other types of procedures, Medicare payment includes pre- and post-operative visits delivered during a global period of 10 or 90 days. Congress mandated that CMS collect data on the "number and level" of visits in the global period from a representative sample of physicians beginning January 1, 2017.

Evaluation of Policy Options for Increasing the Availability of Primary Care Services in Rural Washington State.

The Washington State legislature has recently considered several policy options to address a perceived shortage of primary care physicians in rural Washington. These policy options include opening the new Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University in 2017; increasing the number of primary care residency positions in the state; expanding educational loan-repayment incentives to encourage primary care physicians to practice in rural Washington; increasing Medicaid payment rates for primary care physicians in rural Washington; and encouraging the adoption of alternative models of primary care, such as medical homes and nurse-managed health centers, that reallocate work from physicians to nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs).

Improving adult immunization equity: Where do the published research literature and existing resources lead?

Evidence suggests that disparities in adult immunization (AI) rates are growing. Providers need adequate patient resources and information about successful interventions to help them engage in effective practices to reduce AI disparities. The primary purposes of this paper were to review and summarize the evidence base regarding interventions to reduce AI disparities and to scan for relevant resources that could support providers in their AI efforts to specifically target disparities.