In 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) first introduced the Patient Understanding of Key Information Related to Recovery After a Facility-Based Outpatient Procedure or Surgery Patient-Reported Outcome-Based Performance Measure (PRO-PM), also known as the Information Transfer PRO-PM. This performance measure, included as part of the Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting (OQR) Program, is designed to ensure that hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) are effectively and consistently communicating essential discharge information to patients.
Where is the Information Transfer PRO-PM Required?
Signalling that it will look to monitor this performance measure across all care settings, CMS will be looking to finalize its 2025 proposal to require the Information Transfer PRO-PM in the Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality Reporting (ASCQR) Program in November. Notably, CMS already recently finalized its proposal to include the Information Transfer PRO-PM as a quality measure in the upcoming Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM) for performance years 3-5.
Why Does the Information Transfer PRO-PM Matter?
At a time when outpatient surgery volumes are rising rapidly, the Information Transfer PRO-PM is intended to emphasize clinical accountability for patient education and to ensure patients being discharged from outpatient settings are as ready for post-discharge recovery as their inpatient counterparts. This is particularly pertinent considering that the “the lack of consistently written documentation in the outpatient setting is associated with worse patient understanding and lower patient involvement in their recovery,” according to the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE) at Yale New Haven Health Services Corporation, which prepared the Information Transfer PRO-PM methodology report for CMS.
What are the Key Components of the Information Transfer PRO-PM?
The Information Transfer PRO-PM is a one-time 9-question survey, which should be administered 2-7 days after the patient’s procedure, and patients would have 65 days to respond. The survey covers three domains for patients or their caregivers: patient needs, medication, and daily activities. Key components of this performance measure include:
- Eligible patient cohort: patients who are aged 18 years or older and are discharged alive after a procedure with a stay under two midnights.
- Anonymity: Data collection must be anonymous, meaning healthcare facilities must ensure their workflows or data vendors maintain patient anonymity.
- Minimum sample: Facilities should aim to complete at least 300 surveys in a given performance period, and those that are unable to do so must submit all available surveys, with a minimum of 100 being required for scoring purposes.
- Voluntary and mandatory reporting: For HOPDs, the Information Transfer PRO-PM becomes mandatory in 2027 following one year of voluntary reporting in 2026. If finalized as proposed in the ASCQR, ASCs will see this PRO-PM become mandatory in 2029, following two years of voluntary reporting in 2027 and 2028.
- Noncompliance penalty: Facilities that fail to comply with the requirements of the OQR or ASCQR programs will see a 2% reduction in their CMS Annual Payment Update (APU) two years later.
- Data submission: Facilities must submit the required data using the existing Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (HQR) Program, and they can do so directly or through a vendor.
- Submission timelines: Data collection opens on the first day of the calendar year, and the submission deadline for that performance year falls on May 15th of the following year. For example, for HOPD voluntary reporting in 2026, HOPDs can collect data between January 1st and December 31st of 2026 and must submit the data by May 15th of 2027.
What Does the Information Transfer PRO-PM Survey Ask?
The survey is concise—designed to take less than five minutes—and covers three domains central to safe and effective recovery:
What are the Implications of the Information Transfer PRO-PM for Healthcare Facilities?
The introduction of the Information Transfer PRO-PM reflects CMS’s ongoing drive to measure how well patients transition between care settings and how effectively providers communicate across those boundaries.
For organizations looking to ensure seamless success in this performance measure, they should pay close attention to the following:
- Voluntary reporting: Participating in voluntary reporting allows facilities to ensure workflows or vendors are tested ahead of mandatory reporting in a risk-free environment.
- Operational burdens and readiness: Capturing the required data, particularly for outpatient settings, can be difficult since such facilities typically don’t have strong workflows to maintain open lines of communication with patients in an efficient manner.
- Financial risk: PRO-PMs are increasingly being used by CMS to tie reimbursement to performance on quality measures. While penalties for underperformance are relatively low in the OQR and ASCQR programs, they can still have an outsized impact for facilities with thin margins or other cost challenges. Moreover, with the Information Transfer PRO-PM now set to be part of the TEAM quality measures, it is reasonable to assume that the next generation of value-based care models will have similar requirements for clarity of patient communication and will have a more substantial impact on reimbursement.
- Public reporting and reputation: Performance on the Information Transfer PRO-PM will be publicly reported, impacting quality ratings and affecting patient and payer perceptions of care quality.
How Does Force Therapeutics Support Information Transfer PRO-PM Compliance?
At Force Therapeutics, we see the Information Transfer PRO-PM as an important evolution of CMS’s broader value-based care framework, which aligns closely with our mission to optimize patient care and empower better outcomes for every patient. Hospitals and ASCs using Force are already positioned to meet and exceed this new requirement through existing workflows and data collection processes, including:
- Automated discharge workflows: Force enables clinicians to share standardized pre- and post-op education, care plans, and forms directly through the platform, ensuring patients are well prepared for their day of surgery and have all the information they need for post-discharge recovery.
- Interoperability with EHRs: Seamless integration allows patient-reported data, notes, and instructions to flow directly between Force and the EHR, minimizing manual entry errors and ensuring data continuity.
- Care team coordination: In-platform messaging and smart task management keep all team members aligned, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks during a patient’s transition throughout the care continuum.
- Audit-ready reporting: Real-time dashboards and exportable reports make it simple for quality teams to track compliance, identify gaps, and demonstrate adherence to CMS requirements.
These capabilities not only support the Information Transfer PRO-PM, but also reinforce existing mandates such as the THA/TKA PRO-PM and the TEAM model, where Force clients are already seeing measurable improvements in outcomes and cost containment.
To learn how Force Therapeutics supports hospitals and ASCs in exceeding CMS quality mandates, including the Information Transfer PRO-PM, request a demo today:
