The National Quality Forum (NQF) has endorsed 30 new and existing hospital and post-acute care (PAC) readmissions measures (PDF). Two PAC measures were adjusted for socioeconomic status (SES) and other demographic factors, specifically, insurance status and marital status.
The measures are used in various private and federal quality reporting and value-based purchasing programs, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP). Most of the measures were included in a groundbreaking NQF trial to determine whether NQF should permanently change its policy and allow measures to be risk adjusted for SES. In most cases, and with all of the measures involving hospital readmissions, updated risk adjustment models did not show significant effects of SES risk adjustment.