The National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF) and the American College of Physicians (ACP) today announced that the CMS-approved ACP Genesis Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR) now includes a performance measure for the treatment of heart failure in African Americans beginning with the 2017 Reporting Period for CMS' new Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).
ACP's Genesis Registry is a multi-specialty registry intended for use by many types of physicians including internists, internal medicine subspecialists such as cardiologists, gastroenterologists, and endocrinologists, obstetrician-gynecologists, and family medicine physicians, as well as nurse practitioners and physician assistants, to foster performance improvement and improve outcomes in the care of patients.
The NMQF heart failure measure, Fixed-dose Combination of Hydralazine and Isosorbide Dinitrate Therapy for Self-Identified Black or African American Patients with Heart Failure and LVEF <40% on ACEI or ARB and Beta blocker Therapy©, creates significant opportunities for improvement in patient outcomes, and provides a unique opportunity for physicians who treat this patient cohort to fulfill the MIPS reporting requirements by improving the quality of care. Additionally, the measure helps to promote health equity in treatment of African American patients with heart failure.
NMQF developed this quality measure in 2015 in response to the well-documented potential for this FDA-approved therapy to improve outcomes of care, to prevent or delay initial hospitalizations for heart failure, and to significantly improve quality of life for this patient cohort.
It has been estimated that approximately 27 percent of African-American patients with heart failure in the United States are eligible to receive the fixed-dose combination, yet the therapy has been prescribed for less than 2 percent of these patients. Between 2007 and 2015, it has been estimated that about 75,000 African-American Medicare beneficiaries died prematurely because they did not receive this therapy.
ACP's Genesis Registry is currently the only CMS-approved QCDR that supports reporting of prescribing of the fixed-dose combination of isosorbide dinitrate and hydralazine as adjunctive therapy for treatment of heart failure in the specified patient population. There is no generic or therapeutic equivalent for this therapy, which was approved by FDA in 2005. The fixed-dose combination is still subject to patent and is currently available only as Bidil®.
The NMQF heart failure measure, Fixed-dose Combination of Hydralazine and Isosorbide Dinitrate Therapy for Self-Identified Black or African American Patients with Heart Failure and LVEF <40% on ACEI or ARB and Beta blocker Therapy©, creates significant opportunities for improvement in patient outcomes, and provides a unique opportunity for physicians who treat this patient cohort to fulfill the MIPS reporting requirements by improving the quality of care. Additionally, the measure helps to promote health equity in treatment of African American patients with heart failure.
NMQF developed this quality measure in 2015 in response to the well-documented potential for this FDA-approved therapy to improve outcomes of care, to prevent or delay initial hospitalizations for heart failure, and to significantly improve quality of life for this patient cohort.
It has been estimated that approximately 27 percent of African-American patients with heart failure in the United States are eligible to receive the fixed-dose combination, yet the therapy has been prescribed for less than 2 percent of these patients. Between 2007 and 2015, it has been estimated that about 75,000 African-American Medicare beneficiaries died prematurely because they did not receive this therapy.
ACP's Genesis Registry is currently the only CMS-approved QCDR that supports reporting of prescribing of the fixed-dose combination of isosorbide dinitrate and hydralazine as adjunctive therapy for treatment of heart failure in the specified patient population. There is no generic or therapeutic equivalent for this therapy, which was approved by FDA in 2005. The fixed-dose combination is still subject to patent and is currently available only as Bidil®.
