About Heart Disease & Stroke

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

Website: www.cms.gov

Medicare Advantage 5-Star Rating System. CMS uses the Medicare Advantage system not only to ensure that private Medicare Advantage plans meet Medicare's quality standards but also to give consumers a tool to compare the quality of plans. Consistent with the Million Hearts™ goal, the rating system covers cardiovascular care, including cholesterol screening, weight and physical activity monitoring, and medication adherence.

Medicaid Incentives for Prevention of Chronic Disease. CMS is awarding more than $85 million in grants over 5 years to 10 States (Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York, Nevada, New Hampshire, Montana, Hawaii, Texas, California and Connecticut) to encourage Medicaid beneficiaries of all ages to participate in chronic disease prevention programs and take active steps to improve their health.

Physician Quality Reporting System. The Physician Quality Reporting System provides bonus payments to physicians and other health professionals for reporting quality information to Medicare. Among the measures that physicians and other health professionals may report for 2011 are Ischemic Vascular Disease: Use of Aspirin or another Antithrombotic; Controlling High Blood Pressure; Low Density Lipoprotein Control in Diabetes Mellitus; and Tobacco Use Assessment and Tobacco Cessation Intervention.

Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs). A network of 53 Medicare-funded organizations nationwide that improve healthcare quality at the community level, QIOs will work with physician offices, clinics and other providers to create a Learning & Action Network focused on achieving the elements of ABCS, as well as other quality goals.

Medicaid Quality Measures Program. Five quality measures from this program correspond with the aim of Million Hearts™, including: medical assistance with smoking and tobacco use cessation; congestive heart failure admission rate; controlling high blood pressure; adult BMI assessment; and comprehensive diabetes care: LDL-C screening.

Medicaid EHR Incentive Program. This program provides incentive payments to eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals as they adopt, implement, upgrade or demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology. Measures include both functional and clinical quality measures that address the Million Hearts™ priorities, including capturing smoking status and blood pressure (functional) and aspirin use and cholesterol screening (clinical quality).