The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) contracted with Lewin Group to propose a framework for establishing a quality measure assessing discharge from inpatient facilities to home-based settings for Medicaid enrollees. The proposal seems to imply that quality is being assessed for inpatient facilities based on a ratio of discharges to home for Medicaid enrollees as a function of total discharges for all Medicaid enrollees.

LeadingAge identifies multiple areas in which the framework lacks clarity and requires more rigorous definition of goals, usable data, and applicable settings, among others. This was not a proposed rule nor quality measure at risk of rapid implementation, but rather the opening phases of stakeholder feedback regarding such a possible metric for the future.

LeadingAge comments are available here.