New Age-Friendly Quality Measure for Hospitals
On August 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized the 2025 Medicare Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program and added a new age-friendly structural measure. The measure evaluates hospitals' key elements of age-friendly care across five domains: eliciting patient goals; managing medications for potential harm; screening patients for frailty, cognitive impairment, function, and malnutrition; screening for social needs; and the designation of specific champion(s) for age-friendly care. CMS's recognition of essential hospital capabilities in this way is expected to advance age-friendly care across the country. This new measure was championed by The John A. Hartford Foundation and supported strongly by the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC).
In addition, the final 2025 rule increases payment for hospitals that successfully participate in the reporting program by 2.9% and includes other provisions.
To support hospital success, CAPC has several resources, including courses on clarifying patient goals of care, clinical games on delirium and de-prescribing, toolkits to assess for potential frailty and impairment, and more.