Administrative Claims Measure for Profiling Hospital Performance Based on 90-Day All-Cause Mortality Following Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery

Makoto Mori, Khurram Nasir, Haikun Bao, Andreina Jimenez, Shani S. Legore, Yongfei Wang, Jacqueline Grady, Sonam D. Lama, Nina Brandi, Zhenqiu Lin, Paul Kurlansky, Arnar Geirsson, Susannah M. Bernheim, Harlan M. Krumholz, Lisa G. Suter

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Background: Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery is a focus of bundled and alternate payment models that capture outcomes up to 90 days postsurgery. While clinical registry risk models perform well, measures encompassing mortality beyond 30 days do not currently exist. We aimed to develop a risk-adjusted hospital-level 90-day all-cause mortality measure intended for assessing hospital performance in payment models of CABG surgery using administrative data. Methods: Building upon Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services hospital-level 30-day all-cause CABG mortality measure specifications, we extended the mortality timeframe to 90 days after surgery and developed a new hierarchical logistic regression model to calculate hospital risk-standardized 90-day all-cause mortality rates for patients hospitalized for isolated CABG. The model was derived from Medicare claims data for a 3-year cohort between July 2014 to June 2017. The data set was randomly split into 50:50 development and validation samples. The model performance was evaluated with C statistics, overfitting indices, and calibration plot. The empirical validity of the measure result at the hospital level was evaluated against the Society of Thoracic Surgeons composite star rating. Results: Among 137 819 CABG procedures performed in 1183 hospitals, the unadjusted mortality rate within 30 and 90 days were 3.1% and 4.7%, respectively. The final model included 27 variables. Hospital-level 90-day risk-standardized mortality rates ranged between 2.04% and 11.26%, with a median of 4.67%. C statistics in the development and validation samples were 0.766 and 0.772, respectively. We identified a strong positive correlation between 30- and 90-day risk-standardized mortality rates, with a regression slope of 1.09. Risk-standardized mortality rates also showed a stepwise trend of lower 90-day mortality with higher Society of Thoracic Surgeons composite star ratings. Conclusions: We present a measure of hospital-level 90-day risk-standardized mortality rates following isolated CABG. This measure complements Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' existing 30-day CABG mortality measure by providing greater insight into the postacute recovery period. It offers a balancing measure to ensure efforts to reduce costs associated with CABG recovery and rehabilitation do not result in unintended consequences.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)E006644
JournalCirculation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes
Volume14
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1 2021

Keywords

  • Medicare
  • calibration
  • hospitals
  • mortality
  • surgeons

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine

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