Humana has simplified its clinical quality metrics to make it easier for physicians to report them.
The payer began with a list of more than 1,100 metrics that it pared down to about 200 key quality measures, according to an announcement. The goal is to ease the burden on physicians and to help practices as they transition into value-based care. Humana also notes that physicians have high levels of burnout--in part due to administrative demands--and spend $15 billion annually on quality reporting.
The company says it pared down its metrics by vetting them for duplicates, inconsistencies and clinical relevance.
“Metrics that are not connected to patient health can serve as obstacles in their transition and distract from the intent of care tied to quality,” Roy Beveridge, M.D., chief medical officer at Humana, said in the announcement. Through Humana's Clinical Quality Metrics Alignment program, "we hope to greatly simplify quality reporting and alleviate physician burdens.”
Humana's effort to streamline quality metrics follows an overall industry trend, the announcement notes. In February, America's Health Insurance Plans and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services unveiled their first set of core measures for quality care. The aim is to move away from requiring providers to report different quality metrics on a payer-by-payer basis.
