The National Quality Forum provides the gold standard in quality measures endorsement and advises the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). To achieve endorsement, NQF requires intensive evaluation processes that ensure quality measures meet rigorous scientific standards for validity and reliability.
The NQF-endorsed FOTO quality measures are patient-reported outcome performance measures (PRO-PMs). The FOTO PRO-PMs
- Are each based on a specific patient-reported outcome measure, developed using contemporary scientific methods, which forms the basis for the PRO-PM;
- are risk adjusted so that providers’ performance may be compared fairly - e.g., providers seeing the sicker or more complex patients are placed on a level playing field with other providers;
- are compared separately by patient condition and then risk adjusted using advanced methods which account for individual variables within the following categories of patient characteristics: age, gender, acuity, severity level, medical complexity, payer type, surgical history, post-surgical status/type, exercise history, medication use, history of previous treatment;
- have extensive validity and reliability analyses established on both the patient-level and the provider-level.
Public access to NQF-Endorsed FOTO PRO-PMs and QCDR measures are provided here:
- NQF 0422 (Quality ID #217): Functional Status Change for Patients with Knee Impairments
- NQF 0423 (Quality ID #218): Functional Status Change for Patients with Hip Impairments
- NQF 0424 (Quality ID #219): Functional Status Change for Patients with Foot and Ankle Impairments
- NQF 0425 (Quality ID #220): Functional Status Change for Patients with Low Back Impairments
- NQF 0426 (Quality ID #221): Functional Status Change for Patients with Shoulder Impairments
- NQF 0427 (Quality ID #222): Functional Status Change for Patients with Elbow, Wrist or Hand Impairments
- NQF 0428: Functional Status Change for Patients with General Orthopedic Impairments
- NQF 3461 (Quality ID #478): Functional Status Change for Patients with Neck Impairments
- (QCDR ID FOTO2): Functional Status Change for Patients Post Stroke: Lower Body
- (QCDR ID FOTO3): Functional Status Change for Patients Post Stroke: Upper Body
- (QCDR ID FOTO4): Functional Status Change for Patients with Upper or Lower Regional Swelling
NQF-Endorsed FOTO PRO-PMs are additionally endorsed by CMS in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). CMS requires MIPS measure specifications to be housed on the CMS Quality Payment Program website and may be accessed here https://qpp.cms.gov/mips/explore-measures/quality-measures under Clinical Quality Measure Specifications.
