CMS Could More Effectively Ensure Its Quality Measurement Activities Promote Its Objectives
GAO September, 2019
What GAO Found
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), maintains information on the amount of funding for activities to measure the quality of health care provided under
Medicare. CMS’s information shows it has carried over from each year to the next large amounts of available funding—known as unobligated balances—for quality measurement activities from fiscal years 2010 through 2018 (see figure).
CMS officials said they maintained such available funding to ensure there were no gaps in funding for future years. However, CMS officials also told GAO that the information it maintains does not identify all of the funding the agency has obligated for quality measurement activities. Further, it does not identify the...