NQF Begins Annual Review of Quality Measures for Federal Programs 

Washington, DC—The National Quality Forum’s Measure Applications Partnership (MAP) began its work this week to review standardized performance measures that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is considering for use in 16 federal health programs. These measures are a critical building block for national pay-for-performance and public reporting programs, which affect 55 million Americans enrolled in Medicare and their healthcare providers.

Convened annually by NQF, MAP in its current two-month review cycle will review approximately 130 measures, about 60 of which are proposed for use in the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) program legislated by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). This year’s list of measures under consideration covers a range of cross-cutting healthcare issues, including kidney health, prostate cancer, and heart disease. The full list of Measures Under Consideration (PDF) is available for public comment through Monday, December 7, at 6:00 pm ET.

“MAP convenes stakeholders from across the healthcare continuum to come to consensus on how to best measure quality for federal health programs,” said Christine K. Cassel, MD, president and CEO of NQF. “Their recommendations inform future CMS rulemaking focused on programs integral to improving the quality of care that patients receive.”

Established in 2011, MAP includes more than 150 healthcare leaders and experts from nearly 90 private- and public-sector organizations committed to improving healthcare quality. Stakeholders include consumers, purchasers, employers, health plans, clinicians and providers, communities and states, suppliers, and federal agency liaisons. MAP is overseen by a Coordinating Committee, with three workgroups that conduct in-depth analyses: the hospital workgroup, clinician workgroup, and post-acute and long-term care workgrouppost-acute and long-term care workgroup. These workgroups identify gaps in measurement across settings, prioritize measures for federal programs, and recommend areas for alignment.

MAP also provides input to HHS about core measures to assess the quality of care for children and adults covered by Medicaid, and the ten million Americans enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid. 

The National Quality Forum leads national collaboration to improve health and healthcare quality through measurement. Learn more at www.qualityforum.org.