Technical Expert Panels

Technical Expert Panels

Welcome to the Quality Measures Call for Technical Expert Panel Members Page.

This page serves as the designated site that is used to solicit nominations for technical expert panel members for CMS measure development and maintenance contractors.   A technical expert panel (TEP) is a group of stakeholders and experts who provide technical input to the measure contractor on the development, selection, and maintenance of measures for which CMS contractors are responsible. Convening the TEP is one important step in the measure development or reevaluation process that CMS contractors use to ensure transparency and it provides an opportunity to receive multi-stakeholders input early in the process.

Individuals with expertise in the relevant fields including clinicians, statisticians, quality improvement, methodologists, and pertinent measure developers, as well as consumers, are encouraged to submit nominations. TEP members are chosen to provide input to the measure contractor based on their personal experience and training.  TEP members are selected to represent a diversity of perspectives and backgrounds.

Seeking Nominations:

1. Quality Insights of Pennsylvania Seeking Patients or Caregivers to Participate in the Review of Quality Measures Used by Medical Providers

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has asked Quality Insights of Pennsylvania to develop and review 10 clinical quality measures that are used by medical providers when they participate in a quality program called the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS). This program, which was developed by CMS for all people who receive services from Medicare, encourages medical providers to report how well they perform on different clinical quality actions.  The clinical quality measure describes exactly what clinical quality action is desired, and how the medical provider is to report the clinical quality actions they performed each year. 

Each of the 10 quality measures that Quality Insights of Pennsylvania is tasked with overseeing has a group of individual advisors called a Technical Expert Panel (TEP).  This TEP participates in a yearly phone call meeting. During this meeting, the TEP members review and comment on the content of the quality measures and how easy it is to use the measure by medical providers who see patients in the office during an office appointment.

Quality Insights of Pennsylvania is currently looking for patients or their caregivers to join our TEP meetings for each of our 10 quality measures.  Patients and their caregivers are uniquely qualified to provide input on quality measures based on their own experience and perspective. 

What is expected of the patient or their caregiver at the meetings?

Participate in one or possibly two telephone meeting for each measure (A patient or caregiver can nominate themselves to join more than one TEP group)

The TEP meeting is divided into two parts: 

• The first part: the quality measure is reviewed after which the patient or caregiver will participate in a discussion based their perspective and experience as it relates to the measure.  The patient or caregiver at this time can discuss whether they think the measure was useful to evaluate the quality of care they received or, in their opinion, the measure really measured the thing it was intended to measure This part of the meeting may take 15-30 minutes to review the measure and have a full discussion.
• The second part: the technical aspects of the quality measure are discussed by the other members of the TEP. The Patient or caregiver is not required to attend this portion of the meeting, and may choose to leave the meeting at this time.  However, they are welcomed to stay until the conclusion of the meeting.

These meetings will be scheduled starting March 1, 2013 through April 30, 2013. The time of each meeting will vary, but will be most likely be scheduled for mid to late afternoon.

If you wish to nominate yourself or other individuals for consideration, complete the TEP Nomination and Disclosure form in the Download section below and Email the completed form: measures@wvmi.org

Due date for nominations: April 8, 2013

2. Development of a Cross-Setting Pressure Ulcer Quality Measure

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has contracted with RTI International to develop a cross-setting quality measure for pressure ulcers. The purpose of the project is to develop a measure that will improve monitoring and reporting of pressure ulcers, and support quality healthcare delivery.

Specific project objectives include:

• Development of a cross-setting pressure ulcer quality measure
• Development of a cross-setting approach to data collection for pressure ulcers
• Identification of key issues in pressure ulcer measurement, data collection and quality improvement
• Review and modification of NQF #0678, Percent of Residents or Patients with Pressure Ulcers that are New or Worsened (Short-Stay), for consideration of expansion to additional healthcare settings
• Review of additional Pressure Ulcer measures for identification of strengths and weaknesses to inform measure development
• Identification of a successful (supported by evidence) approaches to pressure ulcer prevention and management

The development process includes:

• Identifying goals related to a pressure ulcer quality measurement and reporting
• Identifying gaps, areas for improvement, and areas for discussion in pressure ulcer measurement Conducting environmental scan of pressure quality measures, gaps in quality measurement, and successful (supported by evidence) prevention and management approaches
• Speaking with public and private organizations regarding quality measurement, data collection, and prevention and management for pressure ulcers
• Obtaining guidance regarding pressure ulcer quality measurement and data collection from the technical expert panel
• Defining and developing specifications and data collection for the quality measure
• Posting for public comment
• Testing the measure for reliability, validity, and feasibility
• Refining the measure, as needed

The TEP Nomination and Disclosure Form can be found in the Download section below.

If you wish to nominate yourself or other individuals for consideration, complete the form and e-mail to: mignaczak@rti.org.

Due date for nominations:. Please submit all nomination forms by Monday March 11, 2013.

3. Nursing Home MDS 3.0 Quality Measures: Comprehensive re-evaluation of NQF #0688 Percent of Residents Whose Need for Help with Activities of Daily Living Has Increased (Long Stay)

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has contracted with RTI International to develop nursing home quality measures. The purpose of the project is to develop quality measures that can be publicly reported and used to provide quality care to Medicare beneficiaries. This Technical Expert Panel is being convened to do a comprehensive re-evaluation of NQF #0688 Percent of Residents Whose Need for Help with Activities of Daily Living Has Increased (Long Stay).

Specific project objectives include:

• Assess literature on scientific evidence for the validity of NQF #0688 that has been published since the quality measure was initially endorsed by National Quality Forum (NQF).
• Review nursing home performance on NQF #0688 since national implementation (2011 forward), including an examination of quality measure performance differences by type of nursing home and resident characteristics.
• Assess evidence of NQF #0688 validity, stability, and reliability based on MDS 3.0 data since national quality measure implementation (2011 forward).
• Assess potential for unintended consequences and other design issues related to implementation of NQF #0688 based on literature and stakeholder feedback.
• Assess relevance of other existing quality measures for the purposes of harmonization.

The maintenance process includes:

• Reviewing newly-developed evidence related to the quality measure.
• Testing the quality measure for reliability, validity, and feasibility.
• Obtaining evaluation of the quality measure by technical expert panels.
• Posting the quality measure for public comment.
• Refining the quality measure, as needed.

If you wish to nominate yourself or other individuals for consideration, complete the form and e-mail to: ADLdeclineTEP@rti.org.

Due date for nominations: February 25, 2013

Ongoing TEPs

1.ESRD Quality Measure Development TEP Roster

The C-TEPs for Preventive Care, Pediatric Peritoneal Dialysis Adequacy, Mineral & Bone Disorder, and Hemodialysis Adequacy will meet face-to-face in Baltimore, Maryland on April 16-17, 2013. In addition, the TEP members will review materials provided in advance of the TEP meetings, participate in 2 to 3 pre-meeting conference calls, be available for follow-up communications to clarify their expert input and additional feedback for the final TEP summary report, and be available if needed to discuss any NQF recommendations.

The ESRD TEP Roster is posted in the “Downloads” section below.

2. eQuality CARE TEP Summary Report

The CARE TEP was charged with reviewing scope and objectives for the upcoming year andproviding information to the project team about how CARE data elements could be standardized for to support interoperability and clinical quality measurement across care setting and align with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program (Meaningful Use).

The CARE TEP focused on two key points of discussion:

• The eQuality team’s vision and strategies for standardizing the full CARE data set
• The relationship of EHR-generated post-acute care (PAC) clinical quality measures to MUStage 3

Additional details related to the eQuality CARE TEP is posted in the “Downloads” section below.