Thank you for your question and interest regarding the hybrid HWR and Hybrid HWM measures. We appreciate your patience as we investigated your inquiry and we appreciate your feedback.
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To clarify, the inclusion of Medicare Advantage patients for the hybrid measures will be implemented starting with Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 payment determination, which corresponds with eligible discharges that occur from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025. Hospitals/vendors would submit CCDE and linking variables for these discharges by October 1, 2025. You can find the electronic specifications for 2026 reporting for the Hybrid HWR and Hybrid HWM measures, which reflect the addition of Medicare Advantage patients, on the eCQI resource center: https://ecqi.healthit.gov/eh-cah?qt-tabs_eh=eh-cah-ecqms : filter Period 2024 and Hybrid Measures. To confirm, hospitals would need to submit MBI for all patients (Medicare FFS or Medicare Advantage) and National Provider Identifier (NPI) for Medicare Advantage patients. Any changes to the required data elements/linking variables would be announced in the future. Your hospital could start asking patients to carry their Medicare cards.

For the current discharge period: July 1, 2023- June 30, 2024: Medicare Advantage patients are not included in the hybrid measures or data submission requirements. However, if it is easiest, your hospital can leave Medicare Advantage patients in your submissions. Importantly, Medicare Advantage patients will not impact your performance on the Hybrid Hospital-Wide Readmission (HWR) and/or the Hybrid Hospital-Wide Mortality (HWM) Measures for the 2025 reporting period. To confirm, regardless of the data your hospital submits this year, only CCDE data that can be linked to Medicare Fee-For-Service claims are used in measure calculation and data submission calculations.