Testimony from NQF Staff
2010
March 23, 2010
NQF President and CEO Janet Corrigan recently provided comments to the Office of the National Coordinator’s HIT Standards Committee on how value sets should be created and maintained to facilitate meaningful use of electronic health records.
Corrigan’s testimony highlights the role NQF plays in bridging the gap between the “quality community” and the “HIT community” by supporting a standardized infrastructure for quality measurement across electronic settings. It also touches on the role of standardization in developing future performance measures. To that end, NQF is currently retooling 110 measures for use in electronic settings; as well as developing a measure authoring tool that will reduce burden on measure developers and ensure measures align with the recently released Quality Data Set.
Read the full testimony, which includes details on the oversight, production, maintenance and implementation of value sets.
2009
April 29, 2009
NQF’s Senior Vice President Senior Vice President for Heath Information Technology Floyd Eisenberg testified before the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics Subcommittee hearing on "Meaningful Use".
The use of information systems and related technologies—that is, health information technology (IT)—has the potential to improve each of the six IOM aims of the healthcare system--safety, efficiency, timeliness, efficacy, patient-centeredness, and equitability—by helping clinicians manage large amounts of clinical information. The adoption of health IT by clinicians has been shown to improve quality by reducing medical errors, reducing failure to follow up on abnormal results, eliminating repetitive testing, allowing more timely follow-up of results, and providing clinical decision support (CDS) tools to facilitate evidence-based care.
Dr. Eisenberg’s Testimony (PDF)
View slides from Dr. Eisenberg’s testimony (PDF)
January 15, 2009
NQF’s President and CEO Janet Corrigan testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the hearing it held on “Investing in Health Information Technology: A Stimulus for a Healthier America”
"HIT is not just a good idea, not just an innovation – HIT is essential if we hope to achieve the goals we have set to achieve higher quality, affordable care that fuels rather than drains our economy. Investments in HIT will have the greatest impact if pursued within a broader policy agenda that encourages the development of higher levels of organizational capacity in all practice settings.”
Dr. Corrigan’s testimony(PDF)
2008
September 9, 2008
NQF Board President William Roper testified before the Senate Finance Committee in the hearing it held on “Improving Health Care Quality: An Integral Step Toward Health Reform.”
“Indeed, the overarching objective of health reform must be to ensure that every American, regardless of race, ethnicity, place of residence and SES, receives timely access to health care that is safe, effective and affordable. Expanded access to care becomes almost irrelevant if in the end we’re getting care that is poor quality.”
Dr. Roper's Testimony (PDF)
March 6, 2008
NQF’s President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Janet Corrigan testified before the Senate Finance Committee’s Roundtable on the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Value-based Purchasing (VBP) Program Implementation Plan.
“Effective performance measurement is the linchpin for achieving some of this nation’s highest healthcare objectives, from sustained quality improvement to incentive-based payment systems. In its ongoing work, NQF looks forward to working in close partnership with CMS and others to chart a course for the nation to provide the highest quality care for all Americans”
Dr. Corrigan’s testimony (PDF)
