CMS Global Malnutrition Composite Score: Are You Ready to Report?
Nutrition care matters — and the healthcare industry is taking notice. That’s why, last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) adopted the Global Malnutrition Composite Score (GCMS) electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) into its Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting program.
The goal is clear: to help improve outcomes by devoting more attention to patients’ nutritional needs and related social determinants of health — particularly for those most at risk for nutritional deficiency and food insecurity.
While the reporting will be voluntary, CMS is keen to have this data — and for good reason. One in three hospitalized patients in the US are malnourished or at risk, yet less than 8.9% are officially diagnosed.¹ This frequently missed diagnosis negatively impacts patient outcomes and drives up the cost of care. And it affects many of your most vulnerable populations, including those over 65 years of age.²
What Goes Into the GMCS Measure? The measure consists of four key components:
1. Screening
Screen for malnutrition risk at admission.
2. Nutrition Assessment
Complete nutrition assessments for patients identified as at-risk for malnutrition.
3. Document Malnutrition Diagnosis
Appropriately document malnutrition diagnoses for patients identified with malnutrition.
4. Develop Nutrition Care PlanDevelop a nutrition care plan for malnourished patients, including recommended treatment plan.
Why Should You Start Preparing to Report Malnutrition Data Now?
The GMCS reporting period begins in January 2024, but many hospitals are already beginning preparations. Here are a few steps you can take now to prepare:
Assess Your Readiness
Do you have the data you’ll need? How easy is it to access? How could the process be streamlined?
Enhance Your EHR
If nutrition care isn’t adequately documented today, investigate options to improve documentation without overburdening your dietitians or physicians.
Do a Data Quality Check
Consult with clinical teams, nutrition teams and CDI teams. If you’re seeing frequent denials relating to malnutrition, now is the time to get to the root cause.
How Can Junum Help?
Our MalnutritionCDS™ solution helps RDs document the clinical evidence supporting physicians’ malnutrition diagnoses — helping to inform nutrition care plans, maximize hospital reimbursements and avoid denials. It provides the malnutrition quality data and analytics you’ll need for GMCS reporting, with at-a-glance scorecards making the data easy to organize and interpret.
The Time is Now
Why wait until next year to tap into the rewards of quality malnutrition care and reporting? It pays to be an early adopter. Start now and meet CMS quality reporting requirements, maximize Medicare payments and help advance health equity by improving malnutrition care performance.
And remember — we’re here to help. Learn more at https://junum.io, then reach out to get started.
References:2. Sheean P, Farrar IC, Sulo S, Partridge J, Schiffer L, Fitzgibbon M. Nutrition risk among an ethnically diverse sample of community-dwelling older adults. Public Health Nutr. 2019 Apr;22(5):894-902. doi: 10.1017/S1368980018002902. Epub 2018 Nov 6. PMID: 30396375; PMCID: PMC6521784