October 16, 2023 Release Notes

This October release implements the new FY24 CMS defined focused populations.

Notes:

• The "CMS Readmissions and Mortality Population (Current)" prompt folder now includes the new FY2024 CMS defined focused populations
• The previous populations from the Current prompt folder are now shifted to the Historical prompt folder*
• The populations that were previously in the Historical prompt folder are now removed**

*As per usual, if no changes are made to a specific population between CMS fiscal years, then the existing version of the population is considered "current" and will be retained in the current folder. If a focused population has no changes between the FY23 and FY24 version, a tag is added to the name of the current population to indicate which FY is valid (e.g., Acute Myocardial Infarction - CMS Readmission and Mortality (FY23-FY24)).

**In cases where no changes are made to a specific population, resulting in the population remaining in the Current folder, the existing Historic version for the population is not retired and remains in the Historic folder.

Important Note:

• Remember to update your Saved Analyses, Saved Selections and/or Favorites. These options are not updated with the new CMS defined focused population definitions and will continue to use selections from what may now be the Historical CMS defined focused populations, or populations no longer available in QualityAdvisor. If your prompt selections include a historical version of the CMS defined focused populations that have since been removed/retired from QualityAdvisor, your analysis results will only include data for those focused populations still available within QualityAdvisor

Expand a link below to see the populations in each folder:

Summary of Updates

Focused Population	Change Summary
Acute Myocardial Infarction - CMS Readmission and Mortality	No changes
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) - CMS Readmission and Mortality	No changes
Coronary Artery Bypass Graft - CMS Readmission and Mortality	33 codes added to exclusion list
Heart Failure - CMS Readmission and Mortality	11 diagnosis and 15 procedure codes added to exclusion list for LVAD and transplant
Pneumonia - CMS Readmission and Mortality	3 codes added to exclusion list
Stroke - CMS Mortality	No changes
Total Hip Arthroplasty and /or Total Knee Arthroplasty - CMS Readmission and Mortality	4 codes added to exclusion list

 

The FY2024 ICD-10 Code Table Appendix is now available on the ICD-10 Focused Population (Current) page.

 

Each year, Premier reviews current clinical populations that are available within our tools and revises or adds new ones based on updated coding and programmatic changes.

With this year's update we have updated Premier-Defined Focus Populations to align with the CMS Defined Focused Populations by excluding COVID-19 patients. The patients will be excluded if the principal diagnosis is COVID (U07.1), or if they have a secondary diagnosis of COVID (U07.1) that was present on admission.

The following updates are included with this release:

• Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair — Exclude COVID-19 Patients

• Adult Asthma — Exclude COVID-19 Patients

• Cardiac/CV Surgery (except CABG) — Exclude COVID-19 Patients

• Carotid Procedures/Interventions — Exclude COVID-19 Patients

• Children's Asthma Care — Exclude COVID-19 Patients

• Colon Surgery — Exclude COVID-19 Patients

• Hip Fracture — Exclude COVID-19 Patients

• Hysterectomy — Exclude COVID-19 Patients

• Percutaneous Coronary Intervention — Exclude COVID-19 Patients

• Pregnancy & Related Conditions — Exclude COVID-19 Patients

• Spinal Fusion Cervical/Other Back & Neck Procedures — Exclude COVID-19 Patients, and added 12 codes to Inclusion list

• Spinal Fusion Dorsal/Lumbar Spine — Exclude COVID-19 Patients

• Vascular Surgery — Exclude COVID-19 Patients, and added 2 codes to Inclusion list

Notes:

• Updated definitions are available for patient discharges beginning 7/1/2018 and forward, however, COVID exclusion impacts patient discharges 4/1/2020 and forward

 

As a result of the decision to exclude COVID-19 patients, we have retired the COVID-19 Outcome Impact Standard Analysis from QualityAdvisor. The original intention of this report was to assist with the evaluation of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact to cost and outcomes for targeted focused populations. With COVID-19 patients now being excluded from the focused populations used for this report, the report no longer provides value.

Additionally, as we move further away from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and hospitals have had time to adjust to the needs of COVID-19 and their patients, the pandemic impact to outcomes and resources is beginning to stabilize. Therefore, the COVID-19 Resource Impact Standard Analysis is also retired with this release.

Notes:

• These analyses are removed from the Facility version Standard Analyses selection menus for both CareScience and 3M

• The back-end data that populates these reports will be removed over time. Therefore, you will still be able to run these reports from "My Saved Analyses" and "System Sharing Repository" if available. Be aware that the reports will eventually stop returning data as related attributes are phased out over time

• At this time, the COVID-19 Timeframe attribute (pre-4/2020 and post-4/2020) will remain available in QualityAdvisor for custom reporting if you still want to evaluate the pandemic's impact on overall facility performance