Coalition pushes CMS to overhaul cholesterol screening standards

The "Measure What Matters" campaign, spearheaded by the Partnership to Advance Cardiovascular Health and the Family Heart Foundation, asserts that the current regulatory framework fails to reflect modern medical evidence. Under present rules, federal quality measures assume that prescribing a statin is sufficient for disease management. Advocates argue this approach ignores whether patients successfully reach the target cholesterol levels necessary to prevent heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.

PACH Executive Director Ryan Gough emphasized that the medical community cannot manage what it does not measure. The petition, formally submitted to the CMS Administrator on September 15, aligns with updated 2026 guidelines from the ACC/AHA Multisociety Dyslipidemia group. These guidelines advocate for risk-based LDL-C targets and universal screening for Lp(a) at least once in an adult's lifetime. Hilly Paige, Chief Innovation Officer at the Family Heart Foundation, noted that while the new guidelines represent a significant advancement, their impact depends entirely on whether CMS and the National Committee for Quality Assurance incorporate these metrics into official health care standards.