Quality Initiatives

With rapid growth in hospice and palliative care, we aim to provide resources and tools to assist the health care team to address quality and patient safety in hospice and palliative care settings.

Resources are available to guide you through your quality efforts and educational needs regardless of your experience in quality improvement.

Measuring What Matters - read the top 10 measures that matter
Quality Reporting - learn about MACRA, MIPS, APMs
Quality Strategies and Registries Project - read about current and new quality registries
Quality Improvement Education - see why QI projects are important
Study Materials - view the AAHPM store for quality improvement products

AAHPM Quality News

Read the latest updates and information from AAHPM's quality initiatives.

Article on Palliative Care Denominator Results

September 3, 2021

An article in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management (JPSM), results are shared regarding whether a commercial claims database can be used to identify patients with serious illness and provide a useful denominator for palliative care quality measures. With a grant from AARP, AAHPM; AMGA; OptumLabs; and researchers Amy Kelly, MD MSHS, Christine Ritchie, MD MSPH, and Laura Hanson, MD MPH, aimed to operationalize a conceptual definition of serious illness to identify those with serious medical conditions (SMC) among commercial insurance and MA enrollees, and to compare the populations identified through electronic health record (EHR) or claims data sources. Read More.

Participate in a Webinar and Comment Period for New Measures

January 11, 2021

AAHPM, in partnership with the National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care and RAND, invites you to participate in an upcoming webinar and public comment period for two new patient-reported experience measures that assess the quality of care provided by palliative care teams working in doctor's offices and clinics to specifically hear how much patients feels heard and understood and how much patients get the help they wanted for pain.

Learn more about this project and accomplishments to date.

We are specifically interested in receiving input on the measures’ feasibility in practice to ensure they are actionable and useable.

A link to the public comment portal will be posted on the project’s webpage, February 1, 2021 and feedback will be accepted through March 1, 2021.

Also, REGISTER for a free public webinar, Launching the Future of Palliative Care: Patient-Reported Experience Measures, February 1, 2021, 2:00 - 3:00 pm ET, to hear about the patient-centered approach re: the development of the two measures and test results as well as how the measures can be implemented and how you can provide input.

New Quality Measures Report Published

March 23, 2020

A new Information Gathering Report has been published by the RAND Health Care team, as part of the Palliative Care Measures Project. AAHPM is partnering with the National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care and RAND to create two patient reported experience measures. The measures will assess the extent to which adult patients receiving outpatient clinic-based palliative care received the help they wanted for pain, and felt heard and understood by their palliative care provider and team. The project is a cooperative agreement (#1V1CMS331639-01-00) between the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and AAHPM as part of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). The project began September 14, 2018 and will conclude September 13, 2021.

Webinar Recording: New Palliative Care Quality Measures Project

September 2, 2019

Learn about the MACRA Palliative Care Measures Project in this recorded webinar. Get a first look at upcoming measures and gain insight into what data will be collected and what systems need to be in place to implement future quality measures.

View the webinar recording and download the handout.

Attend a Webinar to Learn about a Palliative Care QCDR

March 29, 2019

Did you know that palliative care has a Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR) through ABFM called PRIME Registry? You can report measures to CMS's Quality Payment Program, specifically MIPS, when you join. Learn more about the PRIME Registry and view a demo by attending one of many webinar offerings.

This QCDR is a Palliative Care Quality Collaborative initiative, funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. For more information about these items, please send an email to Katherine Ast at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Technical Expert Clinical User Patient Panel and Measure Specification Panel Selected for Palliative Care Measures Project

February 18, 2019

To support the Palliative Care Measures Project, a new Technical Expert Clinical User Patient Panel (TECUPP) and Measure Specification Panel has been named and will be chaired by Sydney Dy, MD MS FAAHPM and Mary Ersek, PhD RN FPCN. The panels will contribute direction and thoughtful input on the development of the measures for patients with serious illness.

The panel members represent a broad array of stakeholders including measure development experts, palliative care clinicians, specialty society representatives, patients and patient advocates, healthcare industry representatives, and others. Read the full release.

AAHPM Awarded $5.5 Million Grant from CMS

January 9, 2019

AAHPM, in partnership with the National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care and the RAND Corporation, was awarded a $5.5 million grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to develop patient-reported quality measures for community-based palliative care.

The measures are intended for use in CMS's Quality Payment Program (QPP), including the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Models (APMs). Read the CMS MACRA funding opportunity FAQ.

This measure development project complements other AAHPM-convened quality and payment initiatives, including: the unification of specialty palliative care quality registries under a new quality collaborative, testing of a methodology to identify the population with serious illness for inclusion in quality measures, and a proposal for an alternative payment model to support community based palliative care.

The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) doesn’t exclude, or otherwise discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, sex, or age in admission to, participation in, or receipt of the services under our quality measures development project funded by the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS).

AAHPM is committed to making its electronic and information technologies about our CMS funded quality measure development project accessible to people with disabilities. If you can’t access content or features on this website due to a disability, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 847.375.4712. To help us better serve you, upload the material in question and/or include the URL and let us know the specific problems you face. Please include your name, phone number, type of information you need (if known) and your mailing address. We may contact you for additional information.

Hospice and Palliative Care Quality Resources

View resources below from other organizations to benefit your quality initiatives.

AAHPM Blogs

External Organization Materials

Clinical Practice Guidelines to Quality Palliative Care, 4th Edition, 2018 - available for download from the National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care
Measurement Tools - hospital-based QI resources from the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC)
A National Framework and Preferred Practices for Palliative and Hospice Care Quality - resource from the National Quality Forum (NQF), 2006
American Society of Clinical Oncology Clinical Practice Guideline Update - updates to the 2012 provisional clinical opinion on the integration of palliative care into standard oncology care for all patients diagnosed with cancer
Defining High-Quality Palliative Care in Oncology Practice: An American Society of Clinical Oncology/American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Guidance Statement - a resource to direct practice and research

General Physician Quality Resources

Quality Primer from the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS) - overview of quality measurement from a physician's point of view
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) - an independent not-for-profit organization that is a leading innovator in health and healthcare improvement worldwide
American College of Medical Quality (ACMQ) - a group of health care professionals passionate about medical quality issues and committed to improving the health care system
Three Faces of Quality - American Association of Physician Leadership offers introductory courses that provide CME

Person-Centered Care

NQP™ Shared Decision Making Action Brief - resource from the National Quality Forum to help clinicians and patients work in partnership to make informed choices between reasonable medical options, discussing risks, benefits, and care alternatives as well as potential burdens, impact on quality of life, and cost.