APTA Board of Director member Dianne Jewell, PT, DPT, PhD, CCS, recently was appointed to the National Quality Forum's (NQF) Ad-hoc Planned Readmissions Committee. NQF readmissions panels have primarily been staffed with physicians, which makes Jewell's appointment particularly significant for the physical therapy profession.

An ad hoc review may be conducted on an endorsed measure at any time if 1 or more of the following criteria are met:

• the evidence supporting the measure has changed
• implementation of the measure results in unintended consequences, and/or
•  material changes have been made to the measure.

  Ad hoc reviews can be requested at any time by any party, as long as there is adequate evidence to justify the review.

NQF will conduct an ad hoc review requested by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the endorsed measures: 1551, hospital-level 30-day all-cause risk-standardized readmission rate following elective primary total hip arthroplasty and total knee arthroplasty; 0330, hospital 30-day all-cause risk-standardized readmission rate following heart failure hospitalization for patients 18 and older; and 0505, hospital 30-day all-cause risk-standardized readmission rate following acute myocardial infarction hospitalization.

This review is being completed due to material changes to a currently endorsed measure (eg, expansion of a measure to a different population or setting). This is intended as a focused review of the planned readmission algorithms that have been incorporated into each of the condition/procedure specific readmission measures.