Appropriate Care Measure (ACM)

This year CMS will add new indicators to its healthcare compare inventory of measures. Appropriate Care Measures will have applicability in all provider venues.

The Appropriate Care Measure (ACM) is a composite measure identified by CMS that captures whether a patient received all the care he or she was eligible to receive based on the applicable measures being publicly reported. The ACM is a total patient level score versus scores for the individual indicators. Patients eligible for at least one metric (quality measure) are counted once in the denominator. Patients meeting all metrics for which they are eligible are counted once in the numerator, but are not counted if any measure is missed.

If all metrics are met, the score is 100 percent, thus the patient has received all the recommended care for that condition. If any metric that the patient is eligible for is missed, the score for that patient is 0 percent.

The ACM is a composite score that captures whether or not a patient received all the care he or she was eligible to receive. The ACM score is a measure of how often the hospital gets it right.