Objective: To assess the impact of alternative methods of aggregating individual quality measures on Accountable Care Organization (ACO) overall scores.
Data source: 2014 quality scores for Medicare ACOs.
Study design: We compare ACO overall scores derived using CMS' aggregation approach to those derived using alternative approaches to grouping and weighting measures.
Principal findings: Alternative grouping and weighting methods based on statistical criteria produced overall quality scores similar to those produced using CMS' approach (κ = 0.80 to 0.95). Scores derived from giving specific domains greater weight were less similar (κ = 0.51 to 0.93).
Conclusions: How measures are grouped into domains and how these domains are weighted to generate overall scores can have important implications for ACO's shared savings payments.
Keywords: Quality of care/patient safety (measurement); evaluation design and research; health care organizations and systems; health policy/politics/law/regulation; payment systems: FFS/capitation/RBRVS/DRGs/risk adjusted payments etc..
© Health Research and Educational Trust.