Medicare Upgrades Dialysis Facility Compare Website
for Better Comparisons by Seniors
Adds two quality measures showing how well
dialysis patients are treated for anemia, information to help seniors
better understand facility survival rates
Nov. 21, 2008 – The Dialysis Facility Compare
consumer Website created by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
has been upgraded to include two new quality measures that demonstrate
how well dialysis patients are treated for anemia (low red blood cell
count) as well as updated information that will help patients better
understand survival rates by facility.
The CMS news release says the improvements will
give consumers even better insight into the quality of care provided by
their local dialysis patient facilities.
Dialysis Facility Compare links consumers
with detailed information about the 4,700 dialysis facilities certified
by Medicare, and allows users to compare facilities in a geographic
region.
Users can review information about the size of the
facility, the types of dialysis offered, the facilities’ ownership, and
whether the facility offers evening treatment shifts.
Consumers can also compare dialysis facilities
based on three key quality measures— how well patients at a facility
have their anemia under control, how well patients at a facility have
waste removed from their blood during dialysis, and whether the patients
treated at a facility generally live as long as expected. Dialysis
Facility Compare also links users to resources that support family
members and specialized groups of kidney patients.
“Dialysis Facility Compare is yet another
tool that equips consumers with the tools they need to seek better,
value-based health care,” said CMS Acting Administrator Kerry Weems.
“Adding more information on the Dialysis
Facility Compare Web site about anemia—a condition that affects many
dialysis patients—and patient survival will help us all learn more about
how well the country’s dialysis facilities are serving Medicare
beneficiaries and the entire health care system.”
Dialysis Facility Compare has featured
information about anemia control since the Web site was launched in
2001.
Historically, the Web site has shown the percentage
of patients in a facility whose hematocrit levels were at 33 percent or
more (or hemoglobin levels of 11 g/dL or more), based on clinical
practice guidelines at the time. However, recent evidence about
increased risk of certain adverse events associated with the use of
erythropoiesis stimulating agents (ESAs), which are used to treat
anemia, has raised concerns about patients who hemogloblin levels are
too high as well as patients whose hemoglobin levels are too low.
The Food and Drug Administration has responded by
requiring manufacturers to develop a Medication Guide and to ensure that
this information is provided to patients. As a result, Dialysis
Facility Compare will now feature two anemia measures—one measure
will show the percentage of patients whose hemoglobin levels are
considered too low (i.e., below 10 g/dL) and a second measure will show
the percentage of patients whose hemoglobin levels are considered too
high (i.e., above 12 g/dL).
“These two new measures better reflect recent
medical evidence about the challenges of managing anemia,” said CMS
Chief Medical Officer and Director of the agency’s Office of Clinical
Standards & Quality, Barry Straube, M.D.
“Our new measures will help patients and health
care providers to better understand how a facility’s patients are
treated for anemia, a condition for which studies have shown that over-
and under-treatment can affect patients’ health status and quality of
life.”
In to adding new information about anemia
treatment, CMS has also updated the way it reports patient survival
rates on Dialysis Facility Compare.
Since 2001, CMS has reported survival rates by
comparing a facility's expected patient survival rate to its actual
patient survival rate. (The expected survival rate takes into account
the patients’ personal characteristics, health, and dialysis history.
The actual survival rate is the rate each facility
reports to CMS about how many patients have survived in a given
timeframe.) Facilities’ survival rates were then rated as belonging to
one of three categories: “Better than Expected” (by 20 percent or more),
“As Expected” or “Worse than Expected” (by 20 percent or more). This
method of calculating patient survival resulted in a finding of “As
Expected” for 94 percent of dialysis facilities nationwide, with only 3
percent in the “Better” or “Worse” categories, respectively.
To help consumers make better distinctions among
facilities’ survival rates, CMS updated the statistical method it used
to classify facilities in the three categories. While consumers will
continue to see facilities placed into one of these categories, they
will find fewer facilities in the “As Expected” category, and more
facilities in the “Better” or “Worse” categories.
Today’s enhancements are only one part of CMS’
plans to improve the quality of care in America’s dialysis facilities.
Earlier this year, CMS revised its conditions for coverage regulations
for the first time in over 30 years, which updated the health and safety
standards that dialysis facilities must meet to receive Medicare
coverage.
A key element of this regulation was the
development of a new Web-based data entry framework for dialysis
facilities nationwide, which will eventually provide substantially more
detailed information for consumers as part of Dialysis Facility
Compare. CMS is also working to implement a value-based purchasing
program to pay for dialysis services, which will reward facilities for
providing high-quality, efficient, and effective care.
Nov. 21, 2008 – The Dialysis Facility Compare
consumer Website created by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
has been upgraded to include two new quality measures that demonstrate
how well dialysis patients are treated for anemia (low red blood cell
count) as well as updated information that will help patients better
understand survival rates by facility.
Dialysis Facility Compare has featured
information about anemia control since the Web site was launched in
2001. 