MMS Blueprint v17 Now Available

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is pleased to announce the publication of the updated Blueprint for the CMS Measures Management System. The Blueprint Version 17 is now available on the Measures Management System website, and reflects careful consideration of more than 800 comments and suggestions from more than 10 stakeholder organizations. Thank you to all who provided comments.

The Blueprint: Contractual Edition contains information relevant only to CMS-contracted measure developers and their government leads. It is available only to CMS and Measure and Instrument Development and Support (MIDS) contractors in the MIDS Library Resource Center.

In addition, the Blueprint Version 17 package contains updated versions of 

• the streamlined version of the Blueprint, which outlines the basic steps needed to complete the Measure Lifecycle for non-CMS contracted measure developers,
• supplemental materials that provide more detail about the Measure Lifecycle and/or specific types of measures,
• templates designed to guide measure developers through measure development processes and format the resulting products,
• a Blueprint QuickStart Guide that provides a start-to-finish overview of measure development, implementation, and maintenance steps and processes, and
• Quality Measures: How They Are Developed, Used, & Maintained (“Quality Measurement 101”), a brief, easy-to-read introduction to quality measures and the measure lifecycle designed for non-developers.

Version 17 Highlights:

• A new supplemental material addressing the topic of population health measures
• Substantially revised Business Case Form & Instructions and related content
• Additional information on special considerations for Medicaid-focused measures
• Significantly revised reliability content
• Information about the new CMS Measures Under Consideration Entry/Review Information Tool (CMS MERIT)

A high-level listing of changes in Version 17 is available in Appendix A of the streamlined Blueprint.

To access the Blueprint documents in the MIDS Library Resource Center, log into your MIDS Library Account. From the Dashboard, click on the Resource Center tab at the top of the page. On the Resource Center page under “Key MMS Resources for Download” there are two buttons for downloading current Blueprint materials:

• Blueprint button: click to access the MMS Blueprint [streamlined]; supplemental materials; Blueprint: Contractual Edition; Contractual Edition Checklists; Blueprint QuickStart; and/or Quality Measures: How They Are Developed, Used, & Maintained
• Blueprint Templates button: click to access to V17 templates

You must have a CMIT account in order to access to the MIDS Library. If you do not already have a CMIT account, you may request one on the CMIT website. Enter your COR’s name as the CMS Point of Contact.

If the latest version of the Blueprint does not display when you access the site, please try refreshing your browser. The Blueprint team welcomes comments and suggestions at any time through the MMS Support mailbox.