Adding New Components to a Composite Quality Metric: How Good Is Good Enough?

Objectives: This study illustrates how the statistical reliability of an individual measure relates to the overall reliability of a composite metric, as understanding this relationship provides additional information when evaluating measures for endorsement.

Background: National quality measure endorsement processes typically evaluate individual metrics on criteria such as importance and scientific acceptability (eg, reliability). In practice, quality measures may be used in composite rating systems, which aid in the interpretation of overall quality differences.

COVID-19 Risk Factors and Mortality Outcomes Among Medicare Patients Receiving Long-term Dialysis.

Importance: There is a need for studies to evaluate the risk factors for COVID-19 and mortality among the entire Medicare long-term dialysis population using Medicare claims data.

Objective: To identify risk factors associated with COVID-19 and mortality in Medicare patients undergoing long-term dialysis.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This retrospective, claims-based cohort study compared mortality trends of patients receiving long-term dialysis in 2020 with previous years (2013-2019) and fit Cox regression models to identify risk factors for contracting COVID-19 and postdiagnosis mortality.