Medicare program; description of the Health Care Financing Administration's evaluation methodology for the Peer Review Organization 5th Scope of Work contracts--HCFA. General notice with comment period.

This notice describes how HCFA intends to evaluate the Peer Review Organizations (PROs) for quality improvement activities, under their 5th Scope of Work (SOW) contracts, for efficiency and effectiveness in accordance with the Social Security Act. In accordance with the provisions of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, the 5th SOW contracts with the PROs are performance-based contracts.