CMS UPDATE: Public commenting of quality measures is temporarily unavailable, as NQF will no longer serve as the consensus-based entity for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as of March 26, 2023.

NQF is working with CMS and the successor contractor to make a smooth transition of the endorsement and maintenance work, which will include further communication to stakeholders regarding this body of work, including public commenting for the fall 2022 measures, after March 26. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Effective March 27, 2023, NQF is no longer the contracted consensus-based entity (CBE) for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Battelle will serve as the CMS CBE for the endorsement & maintenance of quality performance measures. Materials posted to this site prior to the fall 2022 measure endorsement cycle will continue to be available to the public. However, any materials for the fall 2022 cycle and beyond can be found on the Battelle Partnership for Quality Measurement (PQM) website. Click here https://p4qm.org/ for more information.

 Read more

Description

The Opportunity

For the 61 million women of reproductive age in the U.S., access to high-quality care before and between pregnancies—including pregnancy planning, contraception and preconception care—can reduce the risk of pregnancy-related complications, including maternal and infant mortality.1 Disparities in access to quality reproductive and perinatal care and disparities in outcomes among different racial and ethnic groups in the U.S., as well as sociodemographic disparities, are major topics of interest for quality measurement.2 Deaths during pregnancy and childbirth have doubled for all U.S. women in the past 20 years. Figures compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that black women are nearly four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women.3 Moreover, numerous studies have documented persistent racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality, preterm births, low birthweight infants, access to contraception and reproductive healthcare, and other adverse outcomes.

Research suggests that morbidity and mortality associated with pregnancy and childbirth are largely preventable through adherence to existing evidence-based guidelines. Lower quality care during pregnancy, labor and delivery, and the postpartum period can translate into unnecessary complications, prolonged lengths of stay, costly neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admissions, and anxiety and suffering for patients and families. However, without appropriate information about performance at a national level, perinatal quality improvement efforts will be unfocused and incentives for improvement limited.

NQF Related Work

Perinatal and Reproductive Health 2015-2016 – 2016

Stay Connected

For more information, please contact perinatal@qualityforum.org.


1 Johnson K, Posner SF, Biemann J, et al. Recommendations to improve preconception health and health care – United States. A report of the CDC/ATSDR Preconception Care Work Group and the Select Panel on Preconception Care. MMWR Recomm Rep. 2006;55(RR-6):1-23.

2 Dehlendorf C, Rodriguez MI, Levy K, et al. Disparities in family planning. American J Obstet Gynecol. 2010;202(3):214-220. Available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2835625/. Last accessed October 2015.

3 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Pregnancy mortality surveillance system website. http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/pmss.html. Last accessed October 2015.

CMS UPDATE: Public commenting of quality measures is temporarily unavailable, as NQF will no longer serve as the consensus-based entity for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as of March 26, 2023.

NQF is working with CMS and the successor contractor to make a smooth transition of the endorsement and maintenance work, which will include further communication to stakeholders regarding this body of work, including public commenting for the fall 2022 measures, after March 26. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Effective March 27, 2023, NQF is no longer the contracted consensus-based entity (CBE) for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Battelle will serve as the CMS CBE for the endorsement & maintenance of quality performance measures. Materials posted to this site prior to the fall 2022 measure endorsement cycle will continue to be available to the public. However, any materials for the fall 2022 cycle and beyond can be found on the Battelle Partnership for Quality Measurement (PQM) website. Click here https://p4qm.org/ for more information.

 Read more

Sign up for project alert emails that will help you stay informed with our latest project activities. 

Subscribe Now

Sign up for project alert emails that will help you stay informed with our latest project activities. 

Subscribe Now

Loading...